Die Brückenköpfe

What Die Brückenköpfe does

Die Brückenköpfe is a Berlin-based management consulting, concept agency and impact-investing firm focused exclusively on the German healthcare system. Founded in 2015/2016 by Jürgen Graalmann, former CEO of AOK-Bundesverband, and Harm van Maanen, former Executive Vice President at Springer Medizin, the firm operates three integrated pillars: (1) strategic consulting and advisory mandates for enterprises across the German healthcare economy — health insurers (BARMER, AOK), pharmaceutical companies (Roche, Servier, Sanofi), hospital systems (Charité), foundations (Bosch, Bertelsmann), telecom (Deutsche Telekom) and government bodies — all handled at partner level under a self-imposed ~20-person cap to preserve independent thinking; (2) BK Ventures Management GmbH, a BaFin-registered venture capital vehicle investing in and supporting 12 healthcare startups (AviMedical, recare, skinuvita, simplinic, Mimi, medicus.ai and others); and (3) Deutscher Pflegetag, Germany's largest healthcare congress focused on nursing and care, organized through Deutsche Pflegetag Servicegesellschaft mbH jointly with Deutscher Pflegerat, attracting 10,000+ participants and 500+ speakers in 2025.

The firm monetizes through professional-services fees on custom consulting mandates (no public pricing), fund management fees and equity upside from BK Ventures, and event revenue (sponsorship, exhibition fees, ticketing) from Deutscher Pflegetag and the co-founded Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis Gesundheit. Distribution is exclusively direct and relationship-led: all mandates flow personally through the Geschäftsführung (managing directors) and partner level, with no delegated junior execution or self-serve channels. The firm operates wholly within Germany and is privately held by six founders/shareholders that include physician/author Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen and entrepreneur Philipp Lahm. Intellectual property is layered around conceptual frameworks (Continuous Health Circle for precision prevention, BrückenKöpfe-Health-Stack for sustainable digital-health business models, Hauptstadt-Urology for specialty-medicine networks) and thought-leadership content (30+ Systemblick publications). The firm explicitly refuses to disclose revenue and maintains a structural non-scaling model where growth comes through alliances (e.g., consus.health in 2024) and leadership additions (Dr. Leyck Dieken, former gematik CEO, in 2024; Dr. Suermondt, former Sanofi board member, in 2021), rather than headcount or geographic expansion.

Name

Die Brückenköpfe

Legal name

Die BrückenKöpfe Management GmbH

Website

https://brueckenkoepfe.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Die Brückenköpfe is a Berlin-based boutique consulting, concept and impact-investing firm serving the German healthcare system through partner-led strategic advisory, a BaFin-registered healthcare venture fund (BK Ventures), and Germany's largest nursing congress (Deutscher Pflegetag).

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Strategic Consulting & Advisory Mandates: Core consulting engagements for clients across the German healthcare system including health insurers, pharmaceutical companies, hospital systems, healthcare associations, and government bodies. Mandates handled exclusively at management/partner level. They selectively accept engagements aligned with their vision for a sustainable healthcare system.
2. BK Ventures — Startup Investment & Portfolio Management: Through BK Ventures Management GmbH, they develop and scale innovative startups that sustainably shape the healthcare system. They provide financing, operational support, strategic positioning, and network access to portfolio companies. Revenue generated through investment returns, advisory fees, and equity value.
3. Deutscher Pflegetag — Event Organization: Organization and conception of the Deutscher Pflegetag through the Deutsche Pflegetag Servicegesellschaft mbH. Revenue derived from sponsorships, exhibition fees, and ticket sales for Germany's largest healthcare congress (~10,000 participants in 2025, 500+ speakers).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Die Brückenköpfe is an impact agency and concept boutique operating in the German healthcare system. It delivers strategic consulting and advisory mandates to insurers, pharmaceutical companies, hospital systems, associations, and government bodies. Through its BK Ventures arm it invests in and scales healthcare startups, and through Deutsche Pflegetag Servicegesellschaft mbH it organizes the Deutscher Pflegetag, Germany's largest healthcare congress focused on nursing and care.

Product overview

Die Brückenköpfe operates as an impact agency and concept/boutique firm in the German healthcare sector, offering a portfolio of interconnected products and services. The core offering is strategic consulting (Impact-Agentur) combined with venture capital investment through BK Ventures, which backs 12 portfolio startups. The company organizes Germany's largest healthcare congress (Deutscher Pflegetag), produces intellectual property through its Systemblick publication series and vision papers on a future-proof healthcare system, and has developed proprietary frameworks like Continuous Health Circle for precision prevention and Hauptstadt-Urologie for personalized medicine networks. Additionally, Vordenkerrunden provide confidential think-tank discussion forums. The offerings work together as an integrated ecosystem supporting innovation, policy dialogue, and systemic change in healthcare.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• BK Ventures: Venture capital arm that invests in and develops innovative startups shaping the healthcare system, managing a portfolio including Anvajo, Assistme, AviMedical, Cat, HappyMed, Join+Sphere, Keleya, medicus.ai, Mimi, recare, simplinic, and skinuvita.
• Deutscher Pflegetag

Products and services

• Impact-Agentur Strategic Consulting Strategic consulting and concept services for the German healthcare system, connecting decision-makers across health economics, payers, providers, and politics to drive systemic change. Mandates are handled personally by founders and partners at the Geschäftsführung level.
• BK Ventures Venture capital arm that develops and scales innovative startups shaping the healthcare sector, managing a portfolio of 12 companies including AviMedical, recare, simplinic, and skinuvita. Provides financing, operational support, strategic positioning, and network access to portfolio companies.
• Deutscher Pflegetag Germany's largest healthcare congress focused on nursing and care, organized jointly with Deutscher Pflegerat (DPR). The annual event brings together over 10,000 professionals from nursing practice, politics, science, and associations, with 500+ speakers and 150+ program slots in 2025.
• Vordenkerrunden (Think-Tank Rounds) Confidential discussion rounds bringing together decision-makers from various healthcare sectors to address current topics, develop practical concepts, and promote paradigm shifts in healthcare.
• Continuous Health Circle (CHC) A framework for precise prevention that enables personalized risk stratification and intervention matching, using personal risk profiles to provide customized prevention pathways based on individual health status.
• Hauptstadt-Urologie A network platform for personalized medicine in urology, enabling precision cancer treatment through a network of urologists across Berlin and Brandenburg, with knowledge transfer from Charité to practicing physicians.

Quantifiable outcome

• 10,000 participants, 500+ speakers at Deutscher Pflegetag 2025
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• consus.health GmbHcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 January 2024Strategic alliance between Die BrückenKöpfe (Berlin) and consus.health GmbH (Freiburg) to form a powerful strategic partnership. Combined offering covers healthcare policy expertise and care concepts plus qualitative support in medical strategy, finance, interim management, organization, processes, infrastructure, and construction. Joint leadership team includes Jürgen Graalmann, Tim Rödiger, Friederike Kreßler from BrückenKöpfe and Prof. Dr. med. Djordje Nikolic, Manuel Berger, Dr. med. Andreas Tecklenburg, Dr. med. Karen Wismann from consus. Goal: help clients get ahead of the foreseeable insolvency wave and actively shape patient-oriented offerings in sustainable public provision.
• Stiftung Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis e.V.coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2023BrückenKöpfe serves as conceptual lead and assessor for the Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis Gesundheit (German Sustainability Award Health), awarded in partnership with BARMER and Stiftung GEGM. BrückenKöpfe conduct the conceptual work and assessment of applications. Award recognizes lighthouse projects for more sustainability in healthcare across three categories.
• BARMERcoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2023BARMER co-sponsors and partners with BrückenKöpfe and Stiftung GEGM in the Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis Gesundheit. BARMER is also a long-standing client for healthcare policy consulting and has collaborated on publications including 'GKV-Finanzen. Knappheit als Chance.'
• Stiftung Gesunde Erde – Gesunde Menschen (GEGM)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022Ongoing collaboration on sustainability in healthcare, including joint publication of the book 'Jetzt oder Nie: Nachhaltigkeit im Gesundheitswesen' (with Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen), joint network events, and co-development of the Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis Gesundheit. Stiftung Mercator provided funding support for the collaboration in 2022-2023.
• Deutscher Pflegerat (DPR)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013The Deutscher Pflegetag was initiated by BrückenKöpfe founders together with DPR president Andreas Westerfellhaus in 2013. The event is organized through the Deutsche Pflegetag Servicegesellschaft mbH in close cooperation with DPR. The conference has become the central event for nursing in Germany under this partnership.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• McKinsey & Company (Germany Healthcare Practice): Global management consulting giant with a sizable German healthcare practice serving payers, providers, pharma, and government. Competes with Brückenköpfe for systemic reform mandates but at materially larger scale and broader portfolio.
• Bain & Company (Healthcare): Global management consultancy with a dedicated global healthcare practice covering payers, providers, and medtech. Competes with Brückenköpfe on transformation mandates at significantly larger bench size.
• Boston Consulting Group (Germany Healthcare): Global strategy consultancy with an active healthcare transformation practice in Germany, advising insurers, hospital systems, and policy stakeholders. Direct competitor for premium healthcare system reform engagements.
• Deloitte Germany (Healthcare & Life Sciences): Big-4 advisory with a German healthcare and life sciences practice spanning strategy, operations, and digital health. Overlaps with Brückenköpfe's payer, provider, and policy advisory work at a much broader institutional scale.
• KPMG Germany (Healthcare Practice): Big-4 professional services firm with a substantial German healthcare advisory practice serving insurers, hospitals, and ministries. Competes broadly with Brückenköpfe on system-level consulting mandates.

Direct peers

• zeb.rolfes.schierenbeck.associates: German consulting boutique specializing in financial services and health insurance, advising Krankenkassen, regulators, and providers on strategy and transformation. Directly comparable to Brückenköpfe's payer-and-system-side consulting work with AOK, BARMER, and other Kassen.
• Curacon Unternehmensberatung: German healthcare management consulting firm focused on hospitals, non-profit providers, and care organizations. Highly comparable German boutique model serving the same provider-side clients as Brückenköpfe (e.g., Charité, Herzzentrum Köln).
• Roland Berger: Germany-headquartered top-tier management consultancy with a long-standing healthcare practice serving payers, providers, pharma, and policy clients. Closest large-firm analog to Brückenköpfe's stakeholder-bridging model, although much larger and broader in scope.
• consus.health GmbH: Freiburg-based healthcare strategy and operations consultancy that entered a formal strategic alliance with Brückenköpfe in January 2024. Offers comparable German healthcare advisory with care, financing, and infrastructure focus.
• Solidaris Unternehmensberatung: German management consultancy serving healthcare non-profits, hospitals, and care providers on strategy, organization, and quality. Overlapping boutique positioning with Brückenköpfe in the German healthcare transformation segment.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/die-brueckenkoepfe

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments6 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Die Brückenköpfe