In some ways, 2022 was a year of resettling. A year with more open borders and international guests. With one house to manage and one community to build. Without a major lockdown. With more time face-to-face and getting back to in-person events.

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On the other hand, the year has been a globally important one with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and climate disasters. And it wouldn’t be right to reflect on 2022 without recognizing these things, too.

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Whether you’ve been working from our space or are somewhere far away, this one is for everyone who’s ever felt at home in our ‘haus. Here’s a recap of 2022 in the betaverse.

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Want to know what our partner spaces have been up to this year? 

‍betahaus Sofia | betahaus Barcelona | betahaus Hamburg

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One Coworking is flying high this year! You can sign up for their network of +300 spaces all around the world. That means access to a global network of coworking spaces with only one membership. All betahaus' included, of course!

‍Aurea Award: Three worlds, one conference

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The Aurea Award is an annual conference & award ceremony organized by Europa Park – Europe’s biggest amusement park – that recognizes excellence in VR & AR Entertainment. This year, betahausX helped them plan a hybrid AR/VR conference that spanned 3 worlds – real life, online, and the Metaverse. 

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In case you missed it, check out this amazing talk by Volucap on how they produced the latest Matrix in Studio Babelsberg using volumetrics mapping. 

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Seoul, meet Berlin

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In January, we also hosted an Ecosystem Tour with the Korean Minister of Justice – Beom-kye Park – and a delegation organized by the Korean Embassy and the German Trade and Commerce Union (DIHK), together with Enpact and Asia Berlin.

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Not only did they get a look around the house, but we also gave them a peek into the Berlin startup scene with introductions to Korean startups thriving in Berlin and betahaus alumni.

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Take a look at the full visit in photos

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Coworking for Ukraine

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On Thursday, February 24, 2022, Russia launched an invasion on Ukraine. For our small part, we created this article on Trusted Resources for Ukraine and partnered with One Coworking to offer Coworking for Ukraine. 

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Together with their network, the initiative (still ongoing) provides free access to coworking spaces for people affected by the war in Ukraine in need of a place to work.

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‍Learn more about Coworking for Ukraine here.

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Celebrating… the end of insolvency?!

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If you’ve been with us for a while, you know the pandemic was quite a tough time for our business. In August 2021, we even made the difficult choice to close our space in Neukölln as part of an insolvency resolution. 

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We never thought we’d be celebrating insolvency,  but on 3rd March, we happily celebrated its official end! Our house in Kreuzberg is thriving, and we’re gratefully back on track for the years ahead. 

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All things FemTech and Female Founders

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We celebrated Women’s Day and Women’s History Month by giving the stage to all the fem-founded, FemTech and self-care-focused businesses. 

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This started out with a curated lineup at betabreakfast for March, but continued all year long with speakers like femtasy.de and Cheex and continued with tons of events and articles on our blog.

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A few of our favorites: 15 FemTech Startups to Watch | Female Founders on the Importance of Self-Care

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And just like that, betahaus turns 13.

Some things get better with age. Wine. Trees. Vintage clothing. We like to think we fall into the same category 🙂

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We celebrated our 13th birthday and couldn’t be happier. Thanks to everyone who’s been with us for our many years in beta.

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K-Startup Grand Challenge 2022

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2022 K-Startup Grand Challenge is a startup program sponsored by the Korean government that recruits startups from around the world to participate in a 3,5-month, expenses-paid acceleration program at a startup campus in Pangyo Techno Valley. 

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In March 2022, betahausX partnered up with the Challenge for the 4th year in a row to recruit startups in Europe and Africa. This year was an especially big success, with over 700 applications received and 100 auditions hosted by our team. 

Read more about the K-Startup Grand Challenge or check out the recap video.

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Rooftop betabeer featuring Fira - The Feierabend Company

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Another Thursday betabeer. CBD drinks. Views of Berlin. We gave the rooftop over to Fira – The Feierabend Company – a local, female-owned CBD drink producer, for this special edition of betabeer. Support your local business, right?

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Matchmaking, but make it web3

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In collaboration with Korean investor Hillstone Finance, betahausX scouted web3 startups in Berlin and Barcelona – one of which got an investment within 2 months of the first meeting. Great match?

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Breakfast with Qonto

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This year, we partnered with Qonto - the leading European business finance solution. Not only did they host a breakfast on how to use partnerships for visibility, customer acquisition, and retention. They also came on board as a member perk for members and schooled us on when to choose a GmbH or UG in a super useful article for our magazine.

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How ready is your team for hybrid work?

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Work Readiness Challenge is an initiative launched by One Coworking that gives companies a readiness score and makes recommendations on Hybrid and New Work trends. 

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Curious? Take the challenge.

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‍Beer and Chopped Salad

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Not the most classic of pairings, but damn… Choppaluna makes a good salad. And they sure proved it at a special edition betabeer in June.

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Microfinance and social business

This was also the year we had the honor of welcoming the social entrepreneur Dr. Muhammad Yunus into our house in collaboration with Yunus Social Business & YY Foundation. The event kicked off with an introduction to the German Postcode Lottery partnerships over the years (for those not familiar, a percentage of all entries go towards charitable projects). After that, Professor Yunus took the stage to provide an introduction to social business and gave his keynote about the state of the world.

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‍Community events galore‍

Some of our favorite community events happened in July. 

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At betabreakfast, ForTomorrow talked about buying away CO2 emission rights from coal power plants as a way to fight climate change, while member Gideon Bellin pitched on  Sober Sensation and a substance-free festival. We also heard from Space and Lemons for a talk on the startup ecosystem.

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After hours, Lift99 Kyiv Hub hosted a party in our Arena for their Web3 friends, and Kura One offered a free sake tasting on our rooftop. Not bad, huh?

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Now, that’s our kind of festival

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In September, One Coworking helped organize a Coworking Festival with Berlin Coworking. Spaces across Berlin and Brandenburg opened their doors for coworking. Want to join next year? Join the newsletter for updates about next year's fest.

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Vogue Mondays

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Can't pick an outfit? Let us decide for you. Starting in September, Vogue Mondays became an official community event with a dress-up theme every Monday. With themes like Steve Jobs, Fur Fantastic, and Fall Leaves, you can trust you’ll always be kept on your toes. 

Berlin Landing Pad

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Hosted by the Senate of Berlin, we welcomed 11 SaaS startups for Berlin Landing Pad. Three startups came in person for the Deep Dive –  a one-month program where startups improved their understanding of the market, investor readiness, and how to convert the leads they create at conferences and networking events. 

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Since some of the participating startups attended virtually, betahausX organized a hybrid program that included mentors and business partners. 

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Learn all about the program or watch the extended recap here.

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AsiaBerlin Summit

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Also in September, we held a betabreakfast for AsiaBerlin Summit – one of Berlin’s most significant events connecting the startup ecosystems of Asia and Berlin. We did this with a nice betabreakfast featuring SaaS startups from our Berlin Landing Pad program.

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Make it Hubspot

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As part of an ongoing partnership, Hubspot for Startups gave a workshop at betabreakfast for startup founders on how to build a sustainable sales process that's robust enough to power your startup's long-term growth. 

They also gave an interview on How to Create a Smarketing Strategy for Faster Business Growth and gave our members a perk on HubSpot for Startups.

Ecosystem Day with Accenture

betahausX curated a lineup of Blockchain, Intelligence Automatization, E-mobility and Fintech & Neo-banking founders to meet with the digital transformation team at Accenture. 

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Another month of community events

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In October, two very special members kicked off a meditation group called Impromptu Meditation. We also had a special edition of betabreakfast hosted by WeRoad – a team that organizes group tours in 150+ destinations worldwide – and another by Alpakas – the more sustainable delivery app. 

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Chileans in Berlin 

ProChile Softlanding reached its third and last stage in October for the onsite soft landing. Berking Biotech – a biotech startup from Chile – was in the house networking away, learning about the market, and teaching about how alpaca's DNA can help combat cancer. Follow Alejandro on LinkedIn or learn more about ProChile Softlanding here.

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Talking Gender Innovation Camp

In November, we hosted our biggest event of the year – Gender Innovation Camp – with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Over the course of two days, we welcomed more than 100 guests into our house to talk about pressing topics related to gender in business, politics, society, and institutions.

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Teams who retreat together

Our team did an escape room together in September, but in November, our team got away at the beautiful Diversity Lab. We spent 3 days exchanging ideas, planning new things, and setting a path for the future of the member experience at betahaus. Watch the video

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Welcoming Serbia in the house

We had the great pleasure of welcoming A1 Serbia into our house for an ecosystem tour. Definitely one of the warmest crews that visited us this year! Here’s a video recapping their visit. 

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You say goodbye. I say hello.

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It was another year of changes within our team! We welcomed some new members to the team and hugged a few others goodbye. We even added a few babies to the betacrew in 2022.

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Christmas Campaign

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This holiday season, we’ll be raising money for three organizations: IJM, World Vision, and Kein Opfer. We’ll be posting a QR code in the kitchen for the month of December, and announcing the outcome in January!

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As we tear out the last page of our 2022 calendar, we wanted to send our sincere thanks to all the members, partners, and friends who made this year what it was. We're so glad we got to spend it with you.