The international expansion of the Hacker School to Austria, negotiated by the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) at Tutech, has been voted one of the three best business cooperations in Europe in 2024.
The Hamburg non-profit organisation, which gets children and young people interested in programming, was able to expand successfully onto the Austrian market with professional support from EEN.
Dr Julia Freudenberg, CEO of the Hacker School, was honoured as “Female Impact Entrepreneur of the Year” at the German Startup Awards. Her vision is clear: One million children per year should get some programming experience by 2030. “Every young person should have the chance to program at least once before deciding on a career,” says Freudenberg. The organisation puts IT professional into schools as “inspirers” and work with businesses and universities to promote digital education.
Strategic negotiation by EEN enabled Austrian expansion
When the Hacker School developed its international growth plans in 2024, Freudenberg approached Tim Zebahl of EEN Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein at Tutech. Zebahl recognised the potential for cooperation and put her in touch with Romana Schwab from Innovation Salzburg. This cross-border cooperation proofed to be the key to market success: Schwab supported the setting up of the company, networked it with regional stakeholders such as MINT Salzburg and EdTech Austria, and advised on legal structuring issues.
“Every young person should have the chance to program at least once before deciding on a career”
Julia Freudenberg, founder of the Hacker School
Measurable successes and further expansion
Since its Austrian launch, the Hacker School has already reached 3,300 children and young people in almost all Austrian regions. The subsidiary employs five staff and aims to reach 100,000 children a year. In Germany, the organisation had already reached 27,000 children in cooperation with more than 370 schools by 2024. The tried-and-tested prototyping methodology enables parallel further development in both markets.
Tutech as a catalyst for European networks
This best practice success story underlines the effectiveness of the EEN network for social impact scaling. The Hacker School is already planning further expansion within Europe and in Africa – with continued EEN support through Tutech.
We help small and medium-sized companies to break new ground.
As a Hamburg partner in the EU-funded “Enterprise Europe Network” (EEN), Tutech offers access to the world’s largest service network for cross-border business development. Small and medium-sized enterprises and their partners receive free individual support from the EEN team at Tutech and our 3000 network colleagues in over 60 countries in setting up international business and research collaborations as well as advice on innovation and internationalisation.
