Habeck takes start-up founder from Hanover on a trip to Africa

When ICQ became the lowest common denominator among young people worldwide, Christopher Bick - CEO of stashcat GmbH - developed a fondness for the wide world and for a secure Internet connection. Growing up in Schmarrie, a village with around 200 inhabitants in Lower Saxony, Christopher Bick made it to the top of the German tech companies with the stashcat messenger.

In 2012, Bick founded the privacy-compliant messenger service stashcat together with his school friend Felix Ferchland. Hannoverimpuls and the Madsack Media Group became aware of the start-up and supported the young cyber security experts. Today, stashcat's customers include over 10,000 organizations and companies from the KRITIS (critical infrastructure) sector, including the Lower Saxony State Police, THW and numerous federal authorities. Since the start of the pandemic, thousands of schools across Germany have also been using the end-to-end encrypted messenger, which enables video calls, chat groups and data exchange in a similar way to WhatsApp, Slack or Teams - but is GDPR-compliant and particularly secure.

Today - in December 2022 - stashcat now employs a 40-strong team of computer scientists, experts from the crypto sector and digital natives at its location in Hanover's city center. Since 2022, the company has been part of the secunet Security Networks AG Group with more than 1000 employees.

Beyond <s>Africa </s>Lower Saxony

Christopher Bick has now had the opportunity to travel through Namibia and South Africa alongside Economics Minister Dr. Robert Habeck. It is hoped that large quantities of green hydrogen will soon be produced in these African countries. This will be produced with the help of solar and wind energy.

But what does the stashcat CEO from Lower Saxony have to do with it?

Bick: "As part of the delegation, I have the opportunity to talk to local Namibian companies from the energy industry and the local authorities. The need for secure communication is also high here. The meeting with the President of Namibia, Hage Geingob, and the Minister of Energy, Tom Alwendo, during the visit to State House Windhoek was very impressive."

Other board members and managing directors from the energy industry are on board with Bick, as well as representatives from the IT segment and even the space sector. The perfect advisors for Habeck's big plans below the equator.

Bick: "In my conversations, I learn that when it comes to messenger services, the main focus here is on WhatsApp & co. With stashcat, we offer the opportunity to change this and make the authorities independent when it comes to critical communication."

On Wednesday, December 7, Habeck and his companions visited the German-African Business Summit in Johannesburg. On Thursday, the business delegation returned to Berlin to cooler latitudes. For stashcat, however, the continent of Africa is far from over and the Middle East has already expressed interest in the high-security messenger service from Lower Saxony. The company's next major project is being developed there.