Welcome to our 11th REHAU New Ventures Newsletter! In our final Newsletter for this year, we'll be highlighting our recent podcast episodes and our newest REHAU innovation story. We've connected with our partner, Hyundai L&C in Korea, and further solidified our strategic partnership. Additionally, we have exciting news about our approach to sustainability within our HOMEBASE venture, along with new features on our euerzuhause platform. Enjoy reading!
Our first Podcast series, featuring three episodes discussing the Tech trend AI, is now complete and live! You can tune in to these episodes right away on Spotify & Apple Music or YouTube. We had great guests such as Mina Saizde, speaking about Diversity in AI or Shiran Mlamdovsky Somech, AI Impact leader who took us on a very touching journey on how to do something Good with AI. Finally Tiankai Feng who loves to sing and speak about the power of data!
imPULSE - what is it all about? Our Podcast focuses on the exploration of Founder Stories, Venture Building, Start-ups, and Tech Trends. Nils Wagner, CEO of REHAU New Ventures, engages in discussions with insiders and individuals who are catalysts for change. The term 'Pulse' embodies the heartbeat of the start-up ecosystem, representing its vitality, growth, and the rhythmic nature of entrepreneurship. Our goal is to spark inspiration by sharing compelling founder stories and examining new technology trends from diverse perspectives.
Next chapter: Founder Talks!
Check out our new Innovation Story!
REHAU Innovation Stories! Proud to be part of it with our venture homerenu: The homerenu blueprint, a unique approach to empowering contractors and delighting homeowners!
Do you want to know more about this promising idea that is both: close to the US market and the REHAU DNA? Click here to jump into the interview to the journey to homerenu.
Venture Updates
Strategic alliance REHAU New Ventures & Hyundai L&C
Half a century ago, REHAU ventured into a technology licensing deal with a relatively unknown Chemical Company from South Korea, Lucky Goldstar. They were drawn to our advanced PVC window technology and pioneered PVC windows in their local market. Today, LG Electronics stands as a globally recognized household name, while Korea boasts one of the world's largest PVC window markets. It's a source of pride to have contributed to this evolution.
In recent years, REHAU New Ventures has crafted a business model reintroducing our top-tier system windows to the Korean market through Windows Retail Solutions, an active venture within REHAU New Ventures. As part of our strategy, we've formed a close partnership with another key player in Korea: The Hyundai Group. Our strategic alliance with Hyundai L&C has brought the REHAU brand to showrooms nationwide and into the hearts of homeowners, aligning seamlessly with our mission to enhance peoples lives.
Attached is a photo featuring the Hyundai L&C team alongside CEO Jung Baek-Jae and Nils Wagner, CEO REHAU New Ventures.
HOMEBASE - the next step towards a sustainable brand
Yes, it's quite staggering! Around 30% of the environmental impact of online retail stems from shipping packaging, which is substantial.
To align with their sustainability standards, our venture Homebase has introduced a new concept: the utilization of reusable packaging as a shipping alternative. This initiative is remarkable as reusable packaging can reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 80% compared to disposable packaging. Remarkably, a single package can be reused as many as 50 times. These packages are crafted from recycled polypropylene, and when they reach the end of their lifecycle or become damaged, they undergo a complete recycling process using a single-sort method.
Here's how it works: Our customers have the autonomy to choose whether they'd like to opt for the reusable packaging material. If they opt in, they pay a €3 deposit, which is refunded upon return. The return process is hassle-free; the packaging can be folded down to the size of a letter and conveniently deposited into any letterbox. Plus, it includes an integrated return label for ease of return.
Exciting updates are now live on the euerzuhause website: We just launched a new "house directory feature" which allows our customers to get inspired and informed before starting the real process of matchmaking on our plattform. The house directory is set to revolutionize euerzuhause, aiding in customer acquisition, retention, and introducing new streams of monetization. It's designed to provide the first genuine browsing experience on euerzuhause, marking a significant step forward for the platform.
Our team is steadily enhancing this feature, incorporating functionalities like house comparisons, additional customer-requested information, and many moreimprovements in the pipeline. Click herefor the whole overview.
In addition, euerzuhause is finalizing its new corporate identity, which will give euerzuhause a modern and trustworthy look and feel and a more pleasant questionnaire experience. So stay tuned in the coming weeks.
New Ventures @ BayStartup night - between investors & founders
Two weeks ago we got a spontaneous opportunity to present two of our ventures at the Munich Startup Demo Night. As always, the BayStartUp event was impeccably organized, drawing in an enthusiastic audience yet again. We engaged in numerous informative discussions with interested individuals, investors, and fellow founders. We firmly believe in the significance of laying out our ideas, inviting discussion, seeking critical feedback, and embracing a bit of discomfort when faced with challenging questions. It's through this process that we can enhance and advance both our project and ourselves.
People behind
Stefanie Grahl,
Co-Founder Venture HOMEBASE
Time to shine a spotlight on Stefanie who is part of the Co-Founder team at our venture HOMEBASE. Stefanie exemplifies a remarkable REHAU path that led to a Co-Founder role in one of our Ventures, which has achieved over 2 million Euros in net sales within its second year.
Stefanie's journey began with the REHAU Academy, where she was able to turn her passion for adult education and coaching into a career. Under the motto of lifelong learning, she then focused more intensively on the topic of innovation, where she brought the topic of open innovation into the organisation at REHAU Industries a few years ago. "I am very grateful for my 16 years with REHAU, during those years I was always given the opportunity to grow. A great leap of faith that was given to me again and again."
When we started our first E-commerce activities in 2021, Stefanie fearlessly embraced the unknown with an entrepreneurial mindset, curiosity and an unwavering commitment, demonstrating a strong sense of ownership. Over time, Stefanie has become our expert in building end-consumer webshops that are able to engage consumers across various levels and channels. It's Stefanie who predominantly shaped our LIVLIG53 brand into what it is today.
In this video you can see Stefanie speaking about one of our key LIVLIG53 products, made by REHAU and designed by New Ventures:
Last words
#We love Followers
We're cranking up the vibes on our social media channels with all the latest and greatest news. If you're not already on board, hop over to LinkedIn and hit that follow button – you won't want to miss out. Stay tuned, drop your feedback, criticisms, and shoutouts our way. Let's make this a year of epic updates together! 🌟👊
