SAP acquires University of Potsdam-funded startup Signavio for one billion euros
University of Potsdam | Success story: Just last year, we spoke with Signavio founder Dr. Gero Decker in an interview about the founding phase of the company, and now the startup, which is funded by the University of Potsdam, is being taken over by the software company SAP for one billion euros. Graduates of the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) founded the company in 2009 with an EXIST scholarship and were supported and accompanied in this phase by “Potsdam Transfer”, the startup service of the University of Potsdam.
Signavio now has locations in the USA, Australia, Switzerland, France and Great Britain and has over 300 employees.
Signavio offers a web-based platform for planning business processes in companies. With the cloud software, the company provides a tool for procedures, processes and decisions. This allows business processes and other graphical models to be created and easily edited directly on the browser without installing additional software.
“We are delighted that a Potsdam start-up has now become a globally active company. The example of Signavio shows that it is important to promote good ideas, to quickly transfer innovations from science into practice and thus to strengthen the economy,” says the President of the University of Potsdam, Prof. Oliver Günther, Ph.D.
In the 30 years of its existence, the University of Potsdam has developed into one of the best start-up universities in Germany. From 2011 to 2020, the start-up service “Potsdam Transfer” supported 280 start-ups, i.e. about 30 start-ups per year, and regularly occupied top positions in the “Start-up Radar” of the Stifterverband. With the “EXIST Potentiale” project, which is funded by the federal government, academic start-up support is currently being raised to a higher level of quality: The University of Potsdam is focusing on the internationalization of its network.
Aktuelle Pressemitteilung der Universität Potsdam
Interview mit Signavio-Gründer Dr. Gero Decker
Foto: Dr. Gero Decker, Gründer der Signavio GmbH