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On May 25, 2022, two young women enter the stage of the German shark tank called ‘Die Höhle der Löwen’ (DHDL). With their unique idea and ambitious mindset, the two founders Géraldine Urlichs and Janine Weirich could win over three sponsors at once! Carsten Maschmeyer, Dagmar Wöhrl, and Sarna Röser joined the company with 25.1% of the shares and 300.000 Euros.
On their platform Xeem, the two female founders offer students the opportunity to work on real business cases from different companies. Xeem envisions is to become Europe's number one digital employer branding and innovation platform.
The two founders Janine Weirich and Géraldine Ulrichs
How did Xeem's journey start?
Gérladine’s and Janine’s journey with Xeem all started with their joint Bachelor Thesis. While the two power women continued studying, they launched their platform online. In June 2021, the two founders from Darmstadt initiated the unique platform together with CTO Cornelius Huhn.
Not only the two of them were overjoyed, but also large companies such as SAP, Merck, and Red Bull fell under their spell.
"At their first pitch at SAP Next-Gen’s Meetup ‘Innovation with purpose’ I captured the fire in the Xeem founders and saw the immense potential to change the co-innovation, employer branding, future of work, and career opportunities by this platform."
- Katrin Redmann, Global Lead Innovation Portfolio Scale University Allliances, SAP SE
Why is their platform so valuable?
The two female founders created something special. One of the reasons it that they could find a sweet spot connecting the needs of students and organizations.
“Janine and I always thought it was great to get the chance to work with big companies on practical projects. Within our course of studies "Interactive Media Design" we often worked with SAP, Deutsche Bahn, and others. We wanted to give all young talents this opportunity to find out early on what employers are out there and, of course, to be able to contribute their own ideas in the business world.
– Géraldine Ulrichs, CEO & Founder, Xeem
For young people, entering the business world and gaining experience can be difficult and intimidating at first. With its platform, Xeem tackles exactly this problem by offering real-world business challenges from different companies. Xeem aims to create early access between young talents and leading companies and to ensure that the younger generations can bring their future visions to the business world.
Millennials and Generation-Z are at the cusp of current trends and technology. With their mix of commitment, optimism, and technical expertise they can bring innovative prototype solutions to the table! A Win-Win for both, young talents, and companies!
"With Xeem, we enable a playful and immersive version of employer branding."
– Janine Weirich, CEO & Co-Founder, Xeem
SAP among the first challenge providers
As one of the first challenge providers SAP was also watching and supporting Xeem from early on and continues to do so. Like Founder Géraldine Ulrichs says:
"The contact with SAP is actually very close, as we not only organize challenges together, but also appear at events as joint partners. For us, it's super nice that we have such a great relationship with Katrin Redmann and that she has supported, networked and promoted us with our start-up from the very beginning."
Sharing the same purpose of lifelong learning and transforming future education with innovation, SAP started its second collaboration with Xeem this year.
“I am happy that Xeem and SAP are collaborating in shaping the future of education and the next generation of talents. Xeem´s initiative of creating a digital platform for young talents to be creative and innovative in developing practical solutions for businesses is a great way to build up the relationship between young talents and hiring companies early on.”
– Katharina Schaefer, Global Head of University Alliances, SAP SE
SAP at Xeem's Höhle der Löwen event at Hub 31 in Darmstadt, Germany.
(Left to right: Malte Westers, Maša Schmidt, Sarna Röser, Janine Weirich, Katrin Redmann,
and Celine Reichert)
About SAP's challenge with Xeem
Continuous learning – a term that is becoming increasingly important for Gen-Z in particular. Learning new skills and knowledge is therefore inevitable for young talents, especially in cutting-edge areas such as software development. This scares off many young professionals.
SAP’s exciting business case, ‘Redesign the learning experience for students of tomorrow: THE Future Learning Hub’ is intended to inspire young creative minds and help them adapt and succeed in a world that continuously asks for collaboration and utilisation of future oriented tech-skills in the SAP ecosystem.
SAP Learn-Tech Challenge on the Xeem platform
What is up next?
In the end, Géraldine Ulrichs describes how Xeem shall thrive in the future:
“Currently, we would like to become an essential part of the German market.
After that, we are looking at expanding into the DACH region and then Europe-wide.”
Xeem is a start-up that creates sustainable impact for the young generation and for the future of education. The two female founders inspire young talents especially women and show that ideas with an impactful purpose behind are destined to succeed.
Our SAP Next-Gen team is always thrilled working with orgainzations like Xeem. If you want to learn more about our partnerships with educational institutions and industries, check here.
