Osborne Clarke advises CODE University on the establishment of CODE Trust

Osborne Clarke has advised the start-up university CODE University of Applied Sciences on the establishment of the CODE Trust. Five sponsors are planning to make the Berlin university even more successful in future together with CODE founder Thomas Bachem and other supporters. 

Realising the potential of the local tech and start-up ecosystem: That is the goal of the private and state-recognised university for digital product development in Berlin. The start-up university, which currently has around 600 students on the three English-language degree programmes Software Engineering, Interaction Design and Product Management, consistently focuses on project-based and interdisciplinary learning. To date, CODE students have founded more than 60 companies. Founded in 2017 by Thomas Bachem, Manuel Dolderer and Jonathan Rüth, the university is supported by more than 50 of Germany's most successful tech entrepreneurs. 

This support is now to be intensified: The initiators of the university as well as long-standing supporters Stephan Schambach, Rolf Schrömgens and Florian Heinemann have contributed their shares to a newly created CODE Trust. In addition, Flix founder Daniel Krauß and entrepreneur Petra Becker (Dr Becker Unternehmensgruppe) are also involved as “trustees” of the university. They would like to contribute their personal expertise, their network and their resources in order to drive forward the further development and expansion of CODE together with founder Thomas Bachem, Managing Director and University Chancellor Dr Reimar Müller-Thum and University President Prof Dr Peter Ruppel. As the majority shareholder, the jointly managed CODE Trust is intended to guarantee the university's independence in the long term and create the basis for a possible future foundation.

“For me, CODE was a project for the general public right from the start. It takes an entire ecosystem to not just launch a university like this, but to help it realise its full potential in the long term. For me, the establishment of the CODE Trust is the logical next step, because there’s still a lot to come,” says Thomas Bachem.

Osborne Clarke advised CODE comprehensively on the establishment of the CODE Trust. In addition to Till-Manuel Saur (lead), Giovanni Alexandrov, Dana Alpar (all corporate / VC), Florian Merkle and Patrick Seiler (both tax) were involved in the advisory process.