When talking about digitalization in logistics, it's hard to ignore Pacurion. The startup from "Silicon Reken" is committed to revolutionizing the load carrier market – an often overlooked yet but central component of the supply chain. Founder Dominik shares the story.
What began in Reken in 2020 as an ambitious idea by three founders, Dominik Leufgen, Dennis Maschmeyer, and Hakeem Moruf, is now a Europe-wide platform with over 550,000 load carriers moved every month. But how do you make this leap? An important key to success is targeted support from funding programs such as the Digital Hub Accelerator and the Scale-up.NRW program.
Getting started: The Digital Hub Accelerator in Münsterland
At the end of 2022, Pacurion joined the Digital Hub münsterLAND accelerator program – relatively late, as founder Dominik Leufgen says in retrospect. After two years of intensive bootstrapping, the team was specifically looking for opportunities to become more visible in the region and develop strategically – for example, by sparring with the accelerator team to prepare for our funding round.
The Accelerator Program has helped us enormously, especially in terms of visibility in the Münsterland region: We got to know many companies there, gained numerous customers, and were able to take advantage of valuable sparring – for example, in preparing our funding round at the time.
Dominik Leufgen, co-founder of Pacurion
Small anecdotes about the 2023 award entries also remain memorable – such as the 4th place at the Out of the Box.NRW Award at the Pirate Summit in Cologne or MUT – DER GRÜNDUNGSPREIS NRW, where Pacurion was nominated for the final. For Dominik, these were more than just respectable achievements: they were a public signal that Pacurion was perceived as an innovator.
I remember it well – we hadn't heard of the Out of the Box.NRW Award or the MUT Start-up Award before Kim suggested we apply, and we made it into the top 10 for both. These were two milestones for us in terms of public relations and acceptance!
Dominik Leufgen, co-founder of Pacurion
The next step: Growth with Scale-up.NRW
In 2024, Pacurion was accepted as one of 13 startups into the third round of the Scale-up.NRW program – a logical continuation of the Digital Hub Accelerator on a new level. Scale-up.NRW is a state-wide support program run by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection, and Energy of North Rhine-Westphalia, which helps fast-growing startups to scale nationally and internationally by providing coaching, networking, and access to capital.
Scale-up.NRW is aimed at startups like us that are already scaling up, and for us it was the logical continuation of your program: access to an even larger network, discussions with experienced entrepreneurs with similar business models, further sparring – all of this took us to the next level.
Dominik Leufgen, co-founder of Pacurion
Particularly valuable: access to new European markets and exchanges with industry experts, experienced founders such as Christian Hülsewig from Schüttflix, and experts from DAX-listed companies helped the Pacurion team develop new strategies – such as the “Prime” model, which allows customers to outsource their entire load carrier procurement to Pacurion. This expansion of the solution portfolio towards becoming a fullto become a complete solution provider was a successful innovation that helped the startup counteract the effects of the difficult economic situation: in 2024, Pacurion recorded 60% growth.
As it grew, the startup sought to expand beyond its regional perspective. Today, the company is already active in 17 countries with a team of nearly 20 employees – and continues to develop into a complete solution provider for transport packaging.
The path to starting your own business – with a supportive ecosystem
For Dominik, one thing is clear: without programs such as the Digital Hub Accelerator or Scale-up.NRW, many things would have been slower or more difficult. He particularly appreciates the low barriers to entry, the open culture, and access to a large, closely networked startup ecosystem in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Pacurion impressively demonstrates how targeted support, networking, and timing can put startups on a sustainable growth path – from Reken to Europe's logistics hubs. And the team is already looking ahead to further innovation, new markets, and ambitious growth targets.
But just as important as a good ecosystem is the initiative of the founders themselves. If you want to be successful, you should quickly bring your ideas out of the quiet little room, exchange ideas with other founders, and focus on your customers (product-market fit). Speed is another important point – don't enter the market too late and dare to learn from your mistakes.
My tip for founders: don't spend too long tinkering away on your own in your quiet little room; get out there quickly, talk to like-minded people, stay close to your customers, and don't be afraid of making mistakes – fail, learn and keep going.
Dominik Leufgen, co-founder of Pacurion