Neustart Kompass
A German-language mobile companion for newly arrived Afghan refugees that walks them through the German asylum and integration process step by step, in Dari or Pashto, with offline support and document checklists.
recently arrived Afghan refugees in Germany navigating asylum, housing, and integration bureaucracy
- Personalized checklist (Anhörung, Aufenthaltstitel, Wohnsitz, Jobcenter, Sprachkurs) with deadlines pushed to the phone
- Document scanner with auto-categorization of PDFs and a 'what's missing' view per agency appointment
- Plain-language glossary that explains every German bureaucratic term in Dari or Pashto, with audio playback for low-literacy users
- Pre-formulated message templates for emails to Ausländerbehörde, Jobcenter, and landlords, editable before sending
Five years after the Taliban takeover, a fresh wave of Afghan arrivals is moving through the German system and ZDF's documentary is driving renewed public attention to their day-to-day realities.
Afghanistan became the #1 country of origin for asylum in Germany in 2025 with 64,104 applicants (up from 23,149 in 2024), confirming real demand from this specific cohort, though total German asylum applications dropped ~50.7% from 2024 to 2025.BAMF publishes brochure with key figures in asylum for 2025 ↗Overview of the main changes since the previous report update ↗
Crowded with well-funded incumbents: Integreat serves 100+ German municipalities with 3M accesses/year, covers asylum procedure, language, housing, work and is free + open-source under public license; Diakonie's Ankommen/BAMF app and multiple NGO/government portals already target this exact use case.Integreat | Die digitale Integrationsplattform ↗German for Refugees - Apps on Google Play ↗Digital support and integration services for migrants in Germany ↗
Direct consumer monetization is nearly impossible — refugees have minimal disposable income and every incumbent (Integreat, Ankommen, Diakonie) is publicly funded and free; the only viable model is government/NGO contracts, which is a crowded procurement space dominated by established civic-tech vendors.Integreat | Die digitale Integrationsplattform ↗Home - Afghans in Germany ↗
Integration/asylum support needs persist for years once a cohort arrives, but inflow volume is highly geopolitically volatile (Taliban/Afghanistan situation can change, deportation debates ongoing); product relevance is tied to a specific wave rather than a structural growth market.BAMF publishes brochure with key figures in asylum for 2025 ↗
Technically buildable (Dari/Pashto content via LLM translation, offline-first PWA, document checklists), and a small MVP is realistic, but reaching distribution is the hard part — Integreat already has municipal distribution channels and BAMF endorsement, giving it a structural moat a newcomer would struggle to replicate.Integreat | Die digitale Integrationsplattform ↗