A few days ago, the opening of the digital unit Schacht One was celebrated at the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen. The joint venture project between the family-owned investment company Haniel and etventure is designed to assist the Haniel business areas to implement their future digital projects. At the same time, etventure opened its the fifth office in Germany at the same location.

The video on the official opening

You will find further information on the official opening and the digital unit Schacht One here.

The video on the event also gives impressions of the event, with statements from Garrelt Duin, Economy Minister Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW), Stephan Gemkow, Member of the Board of Directors of Haniel, and Philipp Herrmann, Founder and Managing Director of etventure among others:

Schacht One in the media

The digital joint venture is also being followed with great interest by the media. Under the title “5 things everyone should know about Schacht One”, the Chief Editor of deutsche-startups, Alexander Hüsing, describes what makes Schacht One unique: “There are two strong partners behind Schacht One – namely the family-owned investment company Haniel […] and the digital consultant etventure, which is already assisting various corporations – such as Wüstenrot & Württembergische Versicherungen, Viessmann and Klöckner – with digitization.“ With the location at the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen, Schacht One is continuing the longstanding tradition of Haniel and also views itself as a trendsetter for digitization in the Ruhr region.

Hüsing’s conclusion: “Schacht One is a symbol. Firstly, for the digitization of established corporations. Secondly, for the young start-up scene in the Ruhr region. Thirdly: For Berlin. As not every company has to be directly represented in the capital. Berlin has to relearn how to pitch creatively.”

With the Rheinisch Post (“Data not coal“) and theWAZ (“Haniel is returning to the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex“), the most important newspapers in NRW also reported on the new digital unit. Furthermore, the CIO explains the reasons why the Schacht One model is so remarkable. According to CIO Editor Horst Ellermann, it is because of the location in Ruhrpott, Schacht One’s focus on digitization of the company’s own Haniel business areas, and last but not least the consultants who were brought on board for this reason: “Dirk Müller of Schacht One entered into an office partnership with the startup builder “etventure” – not with Accenture or other large consultancy companies. etventure has previously implemented similar projects for the steel trader Klöckner (see above), the financial corporation Wüstenrot & Württembergische and the plant engineering company SMS Group .“