柏林對創(chuàng)業(yè)者的吸引力上升

When Jerome Feys moved from Paris to Berlin to complete his masters in management he did not imagine that he would stay on to found a business.

當杰爾姆•費斯(Jerome Feys)從巴黎來到柏林攻讀管理碩士學位的時候，他沒有想過自己會留下來創(chuàng)業(yè)。

Feys relocated in part to hone his German language skills while studying at ESCP Europe Business School’s Berlin campus and thought he would return to Paris, or perhaps move again to London. He decided to remain in the German capital because he realised it was a better place to pursue his dream of launching a tech start-up. “I had ideas in Paris, but I could see how I could do it in Berlin,” he says.

費斯來到德國的部分原因是磨練其德語技能，同時在ESCP歐洲商學院(ESCP Europe)的柏林校區(qū)學習，當時他以為自己會返回巴黎，或者去倫敦。后來他決定留在柏林，是因為意識到留在這里更適合他追逐創(chuàng)辦一家科技企業(yè)的夢想。他說：“我在巴黎有想法，但我在柏林能夠看到實現(xiàn)想法的路。”

Famously described by a former Berlin mayor as “poor but sexy”, the city has long been a draw for internet entrepreneurs with its cheap rents, relatively generous visa system and vibrant culture.

被一位前市長描述為“貧窮而性感”的柏林市一直以低廉的租金、相對慷慨的簽證制度和富有活力的文化吸引著互聯(lián)網(wǎng)創(chuàng)業(yè)者。

The arrival of private equity has also helped. Venture capitalists invested €2.16bn in a total of 264 equity deals in German-based start-ups in the first half of 2017, according to EY, the consultancy. That compares with €972m in 248 deals in the first half of last year.

私人股本的到來也有所幫助。咨詢公司安永(EY)的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，2017年上半年，德國初創(chuàng)企業(yè)共吸引了風險投資家的264筆投資，融資金額總計21.6億歐元。而2016年上半年，德國初創(chuàng)企業(yè)獲得的248筆投資，總和僅為9.72億歐元。

Berlin is at the heart of this growth. A cosmopolitan city where English is widely spoken, Berlin has attracted large numbers of entrepreneurs from abroad.

柏林處于這種增長的核心。這個廣泛使用英語的世界大都市吸引了大量外國創(chuàng)業(yè)者的到來。

According to the 2016 edition of Deutscher Startup Monitor, an annual industry report by consultancy KPMG, 30 per cent of all German start-up employees are not German citizens. But in Berlin the figure rises to 42 per cent.

咨詢公司畢馬威(KPMG)編制的年度行業(yè)報告《2016年德國初創(chuàng)企業(yè)觀察》(Deutscher Startup Monitor)顯示，在德國所有初創(chuàng)企業(yè)的員工中，有30%不是德國公民。但在柏林，這一比例升至42%。

The takeover in 2015 of Here, the mapping arm of Finnish tech group Nokia, by German carmakers BMW, Daimler and Audi for €2.8bn was a wake-up signal to the world that Berlin could produce significant exits.

2015年，芬蘭科技集團諾基亞(Nokia)的地圖業(yè)務Here被寶馬(BMW)、戴姆勒(Daimler)和奧迪(Audi)以28億歐元收購，這向世界傳遞了清晰的信號，即柏林有實力收購優(yōu)秀企業(yè)。

The upswing in German venture capital activity this year has been largely the result of two big funding rounds by Berlin-based start-ups. In May, food-delivery service Delivery Hero took a €387m investment from South African internet group Naspers (and floated the following month in Frankfurt, raising €1bn). Also in May, used-car platform Auto 1 Group raised €360m from investors including Baillie Gifford and Target Global in a round that valued the company at €2.5bn.

今年德國風險資本活動增多，基本上是兩輪柏林初創(chuàng)企業(yè)大規(guī)模融資的結(jié)果。今年5月，外賣服務商Delivery Hero從南非互聯(lián)網(wǎng)集團Naspers獲得了3.87億歐元的投資(一個月后該公司在法蘭克福上市，融資10億歐元)(注：本文題圖即為Delivery Hero的送貨員)。同樣在今年5月，二手車交易平臺Auto 1 Group從包括Baillie Gifford和Target Global在內(nèi)的投資者那里獲得了3.6億歐元投資，估值達25億歐元。

Masters in management students at ESCP increasingly are interested in launching businesses, according to Andreas Kaplan, a professor of marketing and rector of ESCP’s Berlin campus. A decade ago only 1 per cent of the students on this course launched companies after graduation, but last year 14 per cent did so, he notes.

ESCP柏林分校市場營銷教授兼校長安德烈亞斯•卡普蘭(Andreas Kaplan)表示，管理學碩士學生越來越對創(chuàng)業(yè)感興趣。他指出，十年前只有1%的管理碩士學生在畢業(yè)后創(chuàng)立了公司，但在去年創(chuàng)業(yè)的比例達到14%。

A problem for Berlin is the lack of local industry to support new tech ventures. Unlike London, which is a global capital for banking, education, media and fashion, Berlin’s main source of employment are jobs related to government. Which is why the entrepreneurial scene is so important to the city, according to Prof Kaplan. “Start-ups are the ones providing a lot of the new jobs,” he says.

柏林的問題是缺乏當?shù)禺a(chǎn)業(yè)來支持新的科技企業(yè)。與倫敦這個全球銀行業(yè)、教育、媒體和時尚之都不同，柏林的主要就業(yè)來源是政府相關(guān)崗位，卡普蘭表示，這就是創(chuàng)業(yè)活動對該市非常重要的原因所在。他說：“初創(chuàng)企業(yè)能夠提供大量新的就業(yè)崗位。”

The company Jerome Feys started with Jean-Baptiste Molle, a childhood friend from France, is called Vescape, a fitness app that turns an exercise bike into a controller for video games. While Feys was studying in Berlin, Molle had moved to the UK for a masters degree at the London School of Economics.

杰爾姆•費斯與他的發(fā)小、來自法國的讓-巴蒂斯特•莫勒(Jean-Baptiste Molle)共同創(chuàng)辦了Vescape，該公司開發(fā)了一款健身應用，將健身車變?yōu)橐曨l游戲控制器。費斯在柏林學習期間，莫勒搬到了英國倫敦政治經(jīng)濟學院(London School of Economics)攻讀碩士學位。

The pair compared their host cities to decide which was best for their fledgling venture. They chose Berlin, primarily because rents were three to four times cheaper than in London, but also because they felt the German government and the local community offered more support, according to Feys.

這兩人相互比較了各自所在的城市，以決定哪里最適合他們初生的企業(yè)。他們選擇了柏林，主要是因為倫敦的租金比柏林貴三到四倍，但據(jù)費斯表示，還有一個原因是，他們感覺德國政府和當?shù)厣鐓^(qū)提供了更多的支持。

Within weeks of launching, the pair won a €100,000 prize in a German government-backed competition to support early-stage ventures.

在企業(yè)成立幾周后，兩人在一場德國政府指導的創(chuàng)業(yè)比賽中贏得了10萬歐元獎金。

Berlin’s growth as a start-up centre received a fillip last year from events affecting its largest European rival start-up centre, London. A day after the UK referendum vote in June to leave the European Union, a truck drove through central London carrying a billboard with the slogan “Dear start-ups, Keep calm and move to Berlin”. Its route included tech start-up neighbourhoods in the east of the city.

去年英國退歐影響了倫敦——與柏林爭奪歐洲初創(chuàng)企業(yè)中心地位的最大對手，從而推動了柏林崛起為創(chuàng)業(yè)中心。在去年6月英國退歐公投一天后，一輛卡車穿過倫敦市中心，上面的廣告牌上寫著：“親愛的創(chuàng)業(yè)者，保持冷靜，搬到柏林來吧”?？ㄜ嚱?jīng)過了倫敦東部的科技初創(chuàng)企業(yè)社區(qū)。

Berlin’s business schools have tried to capitalise on the city’s entrepreneurial buzz. At ESMT Berlin, a privately owned school in the heart of the city, masters in management students are asked to come up with business ideas, which they present during a start-up challenge competition as part of the curriculum.

柏林的商學院努力利用該市的創(chuàng)業(yè)潮。在歐洲管理與工程學院(ESMT Berlin)——這是一所位于柏林市中心的私人學院——管理碩士學員被要求提出商業(yè)點子，在一項創(chuàng)業(yè)挑戰(zhàn)競賽中演示，這項競賽是課程的一部分。

Lisa Makarova and Ruben Portz met on this course, where they developed the business plan for JetEight, an automated booking system for private jet hire, which they launched in April.

莉薩•馬卡洛娃(Lisa Makarova)和魯本•波茨(Ruben Portz)在這個課程中相識，他們制定了開發(fā)JetEight的商業(yè)計劃。JetEight是一個私人噴氣飛機租用自動化預訂系統(tǒng)，已于今年4月上線。

Makarova arrived in Berlin from Moscow five years ago, originally intending to stay for a semester as part of her Russian degree course. But she liked student life in the city so much that she remained, transferring to a German university to complete her undergraduate studies.

馬卡洛娃5年前從莫斯科來到柏林，最初打算待一個學期——這是她在俄羅斯讀的學位課程的一部分。但她非常喜歡柏林的學生生活，因此她留了下來，轉(zhuǎn)到一所德國大學來完成本科學習。

Makarova also cites the low cost of living as an important attraction, noting that her €200-a-month flat on the edge of the city was better than anything she would get in Moscow. However, she also admits that other European cities offer different advantages for start-ups.

馬卡洛娃還認為生活成本低是一個重要的吸引力，她指出，她在柏林郊區(qū)租的公寓月租金200歐元，同樣的價格在莫斯科根本租不到這么好的房子。然而，她也承認其他歐洲城市對初創(chuàng)企業(yè)有其他不同的吸引力。

Although Makarova and Portz want to keep their base in Berlin, they are considering opening a second office in London because it is a global centre for the agents that rent out private jets.

盡管馬卡洛娃和波茨想把他們的總部設(shè)在柏林，但他們正在考慮在倫敦開設(shè)第二個辦公室，因為那里是私人飛機出租代理的的全球中心。

“In Berlin it is easy to get support from other entrepreneurs and investors for your start-up,” Portz says. “But all our aviation industry contacts and partner relationships are in London.”

波茨表示：“在柏林，很容易獲得其他創(chuàng)業(yè)者和投資者對你的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)的支持。但我們所有的航空業(yè)聯(lián)系人和合作伙伴都在倫敦。”