Spin-offs

Math2Market was spun-off in 2011 from the department of Flow and Material Simulation and is now the largest of the ITWM spin-offs. The company is specialized in computer aided materials development with the virtual material lab GeoDict.

In January 2013, in addition to the distribution rights, Math2Market acquired all rights to the development of GeoDict from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, in other words, besides software sales and consulting projects, now Math2Market can also perform customerspecific development of GeoDict. Technology based new development will continue to be addressed in close cooperation with Fraunhofer ITWM.

In September 2013, Math2Market received an award for its business plan from 1,2,3,Go. This prize is awarded by a consortium of companies in the greater Palatinate/Saarland, Lorraine, Luxembourg, and Belgium region to support innovative entrepreneurial ideas – Math2Market is one of ten winning start-ups.

In the meantime, the company has proven itself on the market, which is also evidenced by two further awards: in 2019, an M2M tool was awarded the Filtrex Innovation Award; in 2020, the Investitions- und Strukturbank Rheinland-Pfalz awarded M2M the "SUCCESS 2020: Vorsprung durch Innovation". 

Further information on Math2Market and the cooperation with the ITWM

The start-up is a spin-off from the department of Mathematical Methods in Dynamics and Durability and mainly markets the IPS software, which is developed in collaboration with the Fraunhofer-Chalmers Research Centre for Industrial Mathematics in Göteborg.

IPS Cable Simulation is a support tool used in both the automotive and commercial vehicle sectors as well as in the aerospace and mechanical engineering fields to insure the efficient installation of flexible components such as cables and hoses.

fleXstructures was honored with the Robotics Award 2017 and the Zukunftspreis Pfalz 2017.

Further information on fleXstructures and the cooperation with the ITWM

ITWM teamed with Norwegian oil and gas company StatOil Hydro to develop a software product for the evaluation of geophysical data that can be deployed in the oil industry. Sharp Reflections was established in 2009 as a spin-off from the Competence Center High Performance Computing for the purpose of marketing this software.

The great advantage of the ITWM software compared to other products is its use of parallel computing systems in place of large scale mainframes as well as the high speed at which firms can interactively evaluate their own data.

A subsidiary, Sharp Reflections AS, serves customers and partners in Norway where, mainly, services like training and consulting are provided to customers in how to use the software and evaluate the geophysical data.

Further Information on Sharp Reflections and the cooperation with the ITWM

The most recent spin-off from ITWM, ThinkParQ, is mainly involved in the sale and support of BeeGFS, a parallel file system in which data is automatically distributed to multiple servers, which makes access much faster.

The aim of ThinkParQ is to extend the deployment of FhGFS to other fields, beyond (scientific) high performance computing, for example, to the media industry with the new high definition video formats, etc. where, of course, there is also a growing need for storage systems that can handle such amounts of data. The agreement which gives ThinkParQ exclusive distribution rights to BeeGFS, has been in effect since January 2014. The spin-off was founded in 2013.

Further information on ThinkParQ and the cooperation with the ITWM

The aim of the subsidized private pension plans is to provide financial security for the time following the active working years so that the customer is able to maintain their accustomed living standards. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft established the non-profit “Produktinformationsstelle Altersvorsorge” (PIA) in October 2015 on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) to perform a neutral evaluation of these pension products.

The PIA received a grant from BMF for five years – with an option for an additional five years – to perform the tasks of the pension plan information center. The Financial Mathematics department of Fraunhofer ITWM has extensive expertise in using financial mathematics and statistical methods to develop innovative products and processes for the financial sector and government authorities. 

To support PIA, the FM department conducts research, develops capital market models, and determines the opportunity-risk classes for the subsidized pension plan products offered. The institute developed a software called ALMSim, an Asset-Liability-Management (ALM) tool for this purpose. ALM is a risk management technique and, consequently, an important element of corporate management.

Further information on PIA and the cooperation with the ITWM

A new spin-off emerged from our institute in 2019: Wendeware AG makes software for managing the energy revolution ready for the market, administrates the marketing of the products and further develops the future-relevant technologies as an independent company. The group Green by IT at the Fraunhofer ITWM in Kaiserslautern is the development site of the technological ideas and products related to Wendeware. Since 2009, scientists here have been developing solutions that make the energy revolution simple and effective with meaningful control. This has resulted in the energy management system Amperix with the web platform myPowerGrid and the AI-based solar prediction PVCAST. The systems have already proven themselves in practice and reliably control energy flows in single-family homes as well as in industrial applications.

Further information on the start-up Wendeware AG (DE)