Newsroom - auticon

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Our story

auticon was founded in Berlin in 2011 by a father wanting better employment opportunities for his autistic son. Autistic professionals were employed as quality assurance consultants, debugging Websites and applications. As Managing Director of a small investment firm, Kurt Schöffer was approached by Ananda Social Venture Fund, who invited him to partner in creating Germany’s first social impact fund. The fund’s first investment was in auticon, where Kurt served as an advisor on the fund’s behalf. For Kurt, this was an opportunity to apply his business acumen to solve the social issue of rising unemployment among autistic adults, who often possess STEM skills applicable in a range of technology careers. After three months as an advisor, Kurt accepted a role as auticon’s Group CEO, later developing its 6 German office locations and expanding into Paris and London. The company added major clients such as BMW and Allianz, and new technology consulting services.

In 2016, Sir Richard Branson’s investment brought international attention to the company as it expanded into Italy and Switzerland. In 2018 auticon acquired two North American autism employers: MindSpark in Los Angeles and Meticulon in Calgary, later adding clients such as Salesforce and Deloitte and surpassing 200+ autistic employees globally. In 2019, auticon opened in Australia with one of the island’s largest employers.

In 2023, auticon and Unicus entered an agreement under which the two companies would unite. The historic deal established a global model for an autistic-majority social enterprise and ESG company, addressing the inequalities in employment for neurodivergent adults. The two combined companies became the largest autistic-majority company in the world, with 81% of its 600 employees on the autism spectrum across 15 countries.

Press Contact

Thank you for your interest in covering auticon. I look forward to speaking with you.

Mercedes de Graaff
Email: moc.n1781262895ocitu1781262895a@ffa1781262895arged1781262895.sede1781262895crem1781262895
Location: London, UK
Current Timezone: British Standard Time (BST)
Language spoken: English

Publications

auticon’s Global Impact Reports

2024 Global Impact Report

2023 Global Impact Report

2022 Global Impact Report

2021 Global Impact Report (Published 2022)

2021 Global Impact Report (Languages: Italian, English, and German)

2021 Global Impact Report (Languages: French, English, German)

2020 Global Impact Report (Languages: French, English, German)

auticon + Deloitte Report, “Embracing Neurodiversity at Work” 2022

A new report by Deloitte Canada and auticon Canada finds employment barriers, lack of workplace support for Canada’s autistic community. The joint report surveyed 454 adults across the country.

2022 auticon + Deloitte Report, “Embracing Neurodiversity at Work” (English)

A posted image from LinkedIn showing a journalistic story called "Supporting neurodiversity at work"

News Coverage

Richard Branson-backed Auticon offering Irish firms neurodiversity in hiring

Business Post

auticon makes Newsweek's list of most loved places to work

Newsweek

almost half of affected workers don’t disclose neurodiversity

The Irish Independant

Behaviors That Can Undermine Team Dynamics In The Workplace

Forbes

Impact investors join forces to back largest autistic-majority company

Impact Investor

Auticon, la consulenza in mano a esperti autistici. “Sfatiamo il mito che sono ...

Luce!

A lone person stands in a sunlit wildflower meadow at the edge of a dense forest. Tall grasses and purple wildflowers fill the foreground, while golden evening light filters through the trees, creating a calm and reflective atmosphere. The figure faces the woodland, surrounded by nature, evoking a sense of curiosity, contemplation and exploration.

•June 11, 2026

The Human In The Loop Isn’t Optional

There’s a version of the AI conversation where the machine handles everything and humans step back. It’s a compelling pitch. It’s also how organisations end up with models that perform well in test environments and can potentially fail in production. Human-in-the-loop (HITL) is the engineering discipline that prevents that failure mode. And how you staff it matters more than most AI implementation frameworks currently acknowledge. What HITL actually means in technical practice Human-in-the-loop is a design pattern, not a philosophy....

A close-up view of a meadow filled with delicate white, pink and pale peach flowers against a soft blue sky. The foreground flowers are in sharp focus while the background fades into a gentle blur, creating a dreamy, tranquil atmosphere. The image evokes themes of nature, calm and seasonal growth.

•June 11, 2026

What Does it Mean to be a Neurodivergent Professional?

Somewhere between 15% and 20% of the global population is neurodivergent. That’s a significant portion of every workforce, every leadership team, every industry, and every profession, whether or not it’s visible, disclosed, or understood. And yet the conversation about neurodivergent professionals is still dominated by a narrow set of assumptions: that neurodivergence needs to be “managed,” that disclosure is a risk, and that the primary question is one of accommodation. This framing focuses on categorisation and misses what is more...

A person sits in a modern chair within a wildflower meadow, gazing thoughtfully into a forest-like digital landscape. Layers of softly glowing computer code appear suspended among the trees, blending technology with nature. Sunlight filters through the scene, creating a calm and reflective atmosphere that symbolises human insight, judgement and collaboration with artificial intelligence.

•June 9, 2026

What Is Edge Thinking? auticon’s Lens on Cognitive Diversity at Work

If you have come across auticon, you may have wondered what we mean when we talk about “Edge Thinking”. It is a term we use deliberately. This post explains what it means, where the idea comes from, and why ‘Edge Thinking’ is specifically critical for organisations keen to have a competitive edge in the ever-changing technology, data and AI landscape. The one-line answer Edge Thinking is the value created when different cognitive styles work together. It is auticon’s lens on...

A woman sits on a moss-covered tree stump in a sunlit forest, working on a laptop. Soft rays of sunlight filter through the trees around her. Transparent digital interfaces displaying code and data visualisations appear above the laptop, creating a blend of nature and technology. The scene conveys focus, innovation and remote working in a natural environment.

•April 20, 2026

Why Data Annotation is the Engine of Every Supervised Learning AI System

Think about how a child learns to read. A parent points to a dog and says “dog.” Then again, with a different dog. And again, with a picture of one. The child doesn’t receive a definition; they receive labeled examples, repeated until the pattern clicks. That is supervised learning. And it is precisely how modern AI systems are trained. AI is everywhere: routing customer service calls, flagging anomalies in medical scans, navigating vehicles through city traffic. Behind every capable AI...

A cameraman films two people standing in front of a large digital screen displaying flowing data visuals, with overlaid text reading “Watch the new film about our work with auticon”.

•April 17, 2026

Edge Thinking for Vattenfall by auticon

A new short film tells the story of how one of Europe’s largest energy companies, Vattenfall has put autistic technologists at the heart of its IT delivery and is benefiting from 'Edge Thinking'.

Illustrated cover image for the auticon Impact Report 2025 titled “The Edge Effect”, showing stylised figures with lightbulb heads walking along a forest path.

•April 2, 2026

The Edge Effect: auticon Impact Report 2025

auticon’s 2025 Impact Report, The Edge Effect, presents evidence from across 15 countries that neurodiverse teams deliver a measurable competitive edge for employers, from stronger project outcomes and improved team culture to greater innovation. Drawing on data from 494 employees, 287 client organisations and 373 autistic technology consultants, the report shows that neuroinclusion is a business advantage, not just a social good. Published on Global Autism Awareness Day 2026, the report tracks auticon’s performance across three levels: the difference we make...