TUM Entrepreneurs of
Excellence

As a sign of appreciation of successful founders of the Technical University of Munich, the president Thomas F. Hofmann awards the honorary title Entrepreneur of Excellence to an outstanding founder of the TUM at the Dies Academicus, in order to honour important and committed entrepreneurs with a role model function. With the award of the title, the Entrepreneur of Excellence participates in the founding activities of the university and supports future founder generations with his or her valuable experience.

Entrepreneur of Excellence 2023: Katharina Kreitz

Entrepreneurial talent is often already evident during studies, as is the case with this year's TUM Entrepreneur of Excellence, Katharina Kreitz. 

Her company vectoflow, founded in 2015, produces innovative customised flow measurement technology for many different applications and is now the global market leader in its segment.

The idea for the company was born during her studies, where the budding engineer worked in industry (e.g. NASA, Airbus, BMW) and at university (TUM Mechanical Engineering, specialising in aeronautics, gas dynamics and astronautics). Dissatisfied with the existing probes and measurement options, Katharina Kreitz and her colleague Christian Haigermoser decided to develop customised, smaller, more precise and more reliable measurement probes. 

Using filigree 3D printing, the first prototype was soon created and attracted a lot of attention early on. Katharina Kreitz, who quickly acquired the necessary business knowledge with an MBA on the side, brought Florian Wehner, the third co-founder, into the team.

With the support of TUM Gründungsberatung and UnternehmerTUM, the team developed their start-up project further and soon received the EXIST start-up grant. It was then only a short way to the founding of vectoflow. In the meantime, Vectoflow is active worldwide and has customers in over 70 countries. Wherever something flows, be it water, air, gas or oil, Vectoflow products are used. The areas of application are wide-ranging: on Formula 1 cars, in engines, on drones and wind turbines and many more. 

For her start-up, Katharina Kreitz decided against tempting offers from industry. Even as the head of her own company, she continues to be an excellent engineer with heart and soul, who with her enthusiasm for her field and her entrepreneurial spirit is a role model for young scientists and entrepreneurs at TUM.

HSTS