Glossary entry

An Initial Public Offering, or IPO for short, marks the process by which a private company becomes public by offering its shares to the public on the capital market for the first time.

The Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of a startup's ideal customer, based on characteristics such as industry, company size, needs and behaviours that represent the highest value and best fit for the product or service.

Intellectual property (IP), or intellectual property, includes intangible assets such as patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets that protect the creations of the mind.

The tipping point describes the critical moment at which a small change has a major impact and a development is suddenly massively accelerated. In business and marketing, it describes the point at which a trend, product or behaviour enters the mass market. The term was popularised by Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point. Once the tipping point has been passed, it is often almost impossible to return to the previous state.

Investors are individuals or institutions that invest capital in companies with the aim of achieving financial returns through the growth and success of the invested projects.

Insure-Tech refers to start-ups and technologies that introduce innovative digital solutions in the insurance sector in order to optimise processes, improve customer experience and develop new business models.

Insolvency occurs when a company is no longer able to fulfil its due payment obligations and is therefore unable to pay its debts to creditors.

Industry-Tech refers to start-ups and technology solutions aimed at digitalisation and innovation in traditional industries such as manufacturing, energy, construction and agriculture.

Incubators are specialised institutions or programmes that support startups in their early stages of development by providing access to resources such as office space, mentoring, networks and sometimes seed capital.