From studying to founding a company
The Applied Business Innovation Master's degree program at HM Business School combines business management expertise with practical projects in cooperation with companies. Students work on real-life problems, including the development of solutions to optimize internal company processes. The business world's growing interest in artificial intelligence provided a concrete starting point: how can AI be meaningfully integrated into existing company structures? "We wanted to apply the knowledge we had learned during our studies and initially focused on advising companies that wanted to integrate AI into their corporate structures. This ultimately led to the creation of INTELLEGAM," says HM alumnus Marc Gehring.
From these approaches developed during his studies, a founding team was formed, which pursued its idea in parallel and concretized it in the incubation program of the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE) - at that time still under the name "WeConnectAI". There, the founders received targeted feedback, access to workshops and mentoring as well as support in building a viable business model. The incubation thus supplements academic education with practical start-up support and enables students and alumni to implement entrepreneurial projects during or directly after their studies.
AI solutions for the automotive industry
The software company INTELLEGAM emerged from the approaches developed during the course and the early incubation phase. The start-up supports companies in making business processes more efficient with the help of customized AI applications: from the development of internal chatbots based on company-specific data to the complete automation of processes. The team specializes in the automotive industry, specifically in applications for the retail sector.
To this end, INTELLEGAM has developed an AI technology that is already being used by the two car manufacturers BYD and Nissan in Europe. Among other things, it optimizes the evaluation of repair data and thus contributes to an improved customer experience. INTELLEGAM also has scalable technologies along the entire AI value chain - from data structuring and intelligent search functions to the integration of customized large language models.
Million-euro deal with Australian company
The breakthrough for the start-up came in 2025, when Australian automotive software provider Infomedia acquired 50% of the start-up's shares for around 6 million euros. The aim of the strategic partnership is to expand Infomedia's product range with generative AI technology and accelerate data-driven growth in the automotive sector.
"The automotive industry is undergoing rapid change. Companies are looking for intelligent solutions to optimize processes and make informed decisions. Together with Infomedia, we are taking our AI technology to where it creates the greatest added value," explains HM alumnus and INTELLEGAM CEO Tobias Hetfleisch.
Founding from university - supported by Munich University of Applied Sciences and SCE
INTELLEGAM's development is an example of how start-ups can emerge from university. HM combines entrepreneurial teaching with structured start-up support. The Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship acts as a central point of contact for students and alumni who want to further develop their ideas and turn them into marketable business models. Programs such as SCE Incubation support start-up teams in the pre-foundation and early growth phase with coaching, training, infrastructure and access to a strong network from the business and start-up community.
This close dovetailing of studies and incubation helps to turn projects in the lecture hall into viable companies - as the example of INTELLEGAM shows.
