The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy received around 30 applications and has selected digital agency RCKT as its new hub agency operator.

State Secretary Matthias Machnig said: “I am delighted that we found RCKT - an operator that is both experienced and creative - for our hub agency. RCKT embodies the dawn of a new digital era in Germany. It convinced us with its original ideas, good connections with the start-up scene and its projects for digitalising established companies. Their approach is to bring together old and new economy in a way that will benefit both sides. It is this matching that makes RCKT a perfect fit for our hub agency.”

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) launched its Digital Hub Initiative in November 2016. Strong German digital hubs, where established companies, start-ups and outstanding companies cooperate closely are to become even more connected and visible on both national and international level. The initiative aims at attracting international start-ups to settle in Germany. We want to demonstrate that our industrialised economy will give them the best conditions for industry-oriented and engineering-oriented thinking and working, and access to state-of-the-art digital technologies.

RCKT is a spin-off of Rocket Internet. It is well connected with the start-up scene and has acted as midwife to numerous start-up launches. Furthermore, it develops digitalisation strategies for established companies and ensures a close linkage with suitable start-ups. RCKT chose the communications agency CNC as its consortium partner. CNC has high-level contacts with industry and long standing experience in business communications.

Frankfurt, Hamburg, Dortmund, Munich and Berlin have already been chosen as hubs. A maximum of 12 cities are to be selected. Cities can apply to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) until mid-March. We have already received numerous applications; an independent advisory board with prominent figures from different professions will be in charge of the choice. All hubs will be selected before the 2017 digital summit.

As a hub agency, RCKT will commit to creating national connections for German hubs. GTAI (Germany Trade and Invest) will be in charge of a powerful advertising campaign.