Prominent reinforcement for Logistikbude GmbH: Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael ten Hompel, former managing director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML), is now joining as a shareholder in the technology start-up from Dortmund. By doing so, he expands his previous involvement and will support the “Bude” in the future not only professionally but also financially. The private investment underscores ten Hompel's enthusiasm for the leading technology and the start-up's vision, according to a press release from the company.
“Michael ten Hompel stands like hardly anyone else for innovation and progress in logistics. That he believes in our vision and supports us not only with advice but also with his own capital in our vision means incredibly much to us. It shows that we are on the right track,” says Dr. Philipp Hüning, co-founder and CEO of Logistikbude GmbH.
According to the Dortmund start-up, the software
it has developed automates the management of load carriers of all kinds, for example pallets, containers or racking, through the intelligent use of existing data. This creates real-time transparency along the entire supply chain without manual effort, while processes such as account reconciliation, inventory reconciliation, and stocktaking run automatically. Additionally, any documents, especially pallet slips, are automatically posted using AI.
Complete automation as the goal
The start-up's grand vision is to fully automate load carrier management. Even during his time at the Fraunhofer Institute, ten Hompel consistently encouraged his employees to become entrepreneurial and to found their own start-ups – including the Logistikbude team. For about a year and a half, ten Hompel has already supported the young company voluntarily as a board member, bringing his scientific and strategic expertise to bear there.
With the entry as an investor, he deepens this engagement from a deep conviction in the concept.
Ten Hompel explains:
“With the software solution of Logistikbude, we have the unique opportunity to establish a digital standard in a central process of logistics. Such opportunities to create standards are extremely rare – that is why I want to be an active part of this development.”
For the former institute director, who throughout his career has been involved with forward-looking technologies such as the Internet of Things, load carrier management is a cross-cutting challenge that has long moved the transport and logistics industry, trade, and manufacturing companies. The Logistikbude's vision therefore hits exactly the industry’s nerve:
“Logistikbude thinks in a completely new dimension,” he explains. “We are not talking here about a few percent increase in efficiency, but about a solution that fully automates load carrier management for the first time. For me, it was clear from the beginning that this idea contains the potential to fundamentally change the
processes in logistics.”
Ten Hompel is one of the best-known figures in Germany's logistics economy and is regarded as one of the inventors of shuttle technology in intralogistics. He is a member of the Directorate of the Lamarr Institute (AI) and Senior Professor at TU Dortmund. Until spring 2024, he was a full professor and chair of the Department of Materials Handling and Warehousing and the managing director of Fraunhofer IML. Before his scientific career, he was an entrepreneur.
Founder and award recipient
Among other things, he founded GamBit GmbH (today Vanderlande Industries) in 1988 and led the company, which primarily focused on the development and implementation of warehouse management systems and industrial controls, until 2000 as managing partner. Ten Hompel has been awarded multiple times for his commitment: In 2023 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon (Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande) of the Federal Republic of Germany.
