The BRYCK Startup Alliance, one of Germany’s ten so-called Startup Factories, has added Ronald Kriedel to its leadership.
Kriedel joins two other managing directors, Philippa Köhnk and Ersin Üstün, who have been leading BRYCK since April 2025. He succeeds Maximilian Schimanski,
Köhnk will oversee industry, market, and collaboration between startups and corporates, while Üstün is responsible for regional and international partnerships, as well as building the deeptech ecosystem.
Kriedel will be responsible for tech transfer. He has specifically been tasked with expanding access to universities, research, and startup teams.
Kriedel has been the managing director of TU Capital, the spinout investment fund of TU Dortmund, since July 2021, and has been the managing director of the university’s tech transfer office, Centrum für Entrepreneurship und Transfer, since January 2017.
He will remain in his roles with TU Dortmund in addition to his new responsibilities with the BRYCK Startup Alliance.
Recognised by the German state as one of the country’s ten startup factories, the alliance is a partnership between the Ruhr University Alliance (itself made up of TU Dortmund, the Ruhr University Bochum, and the University of Duisburg-Essen), the RAG Foundation, the Initiativkreis Ruhr, and the BRYCK Innovation and Startup Center.
The BRYCK Startup Alliance has access to its own early-stage fund, GF BRYCK Ventures, launched last year. The alliance aims to support a total of 1,000 spinouts by 2030 and expects its portfolio to raise €1 billion in VC funding.
