Back in March we pitched in the capital, now we're heading to the south of Germany. We're looking forward to the Digital Hub Initiative's second Pitch Night which will be organised in collaboration with the DLD in Munich. The Pitch Night will be hosted by the Munich Twin Hub, home to important InsurTech and Mobility innovations.
In 2019 ten startups will have the opportunity to pitch in front of well-known investors at the Pitch Night. Founders from all twelve Digital Hubs are invited to submit their pitch decks for the event. For the second time, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy will present the best startup ideas for Germany's key industries - including mobility, logistics, and the financial industry - as part of one of Europe's most important digital events. In spring 2018, the initiative held its first Pitch Night, where innovative startups such as Finanzguru and Infrasolid impressed their audience and collected investments worth millions. That's why we can't wait to see which startups will present with their visions in January.
Before the ten selected startups for 2019 are announced, we need to take a look back: What happened to the young companies from the first Pitch Night? The startups have succeeded in collecting financing, launching their products and winning prizes. Here are the highlights:
One of the biggest success stories belongs to this startup from Frankfurt. The founders Alexander and Benjamin Michel appeared with their AI-supported financial assets in "Die Höhle der Löwen", Germany's version of Shark Tank, and received the largest investment in the show's history with 1 million Euros.
The startup, which was only recently founded in 2018, works on software that analyses lithium-ion batteries in real time. Twaice received seed financing of 1.2 million Euros from Venture Capital Partners and Speedinvest in September. They also won the top prize in the BMWi's Digital Innovations startup competition and were voted one of Europe's Top 30 CleanTech Startups by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT).
Infrasolid develops small, powerful and cost-effective infrared light sources for the miniaturisation of gas measurement and mass analysis equipment. In 2018, the Dresden-based startup received investments in the single-digit millions from investors including VNG Innovation GmbH. The startup was first contacted through the SpinLab accelerator which supports the Leipzig Smart Infrastructure Hub.
The InsurTech startup has an extremely successful year to look back on: First, Nect launched "Nect ID" - its AI-supported video ID process for insurance companies and thus went from the working prototype to the launch phase. They also received six-figure funding from the city of Hamburg and the European Union. And numerous prizes were announced for the founders: They won the Versicherungsforen Leipzig's Rockstar Award and the 'Gründer des Jahres' "Software" category. Most recently, R+V Versicherung announced its collaboration with Nect.
IT-Labs launched its product "Alberta", an intelligent care management platform for the home care and medical devices market. The Nuremberg-based startup also won first place in the VR meine Bank eG Startup Contest in addition to second and third place in Northern Bavaria's Business Plan Contest on two separate occasions.
MAIoT uses predictive maintenance models to maximise the available time of trucks on the road. Adam Probst, the Founder of the Munich startup, accompanied the Minister of State for Digitisation, Dorothee Bär, as part of the German delegation at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The InsurTech startup won first place at the IHK's WeDoDigital Award in the FinTech category. Among the supporters of the Hamburg startup are André M. Bajorat, CEO at figo, and Andreas Lenz and Björn Assmann, Co-Founders and Managing Directors at t3n magazine.
Rüdenauer 3D Technology - R3DT
With its virtual reality tool for Planning 4.0, the spin-off from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) was one of the winning businesses in the "100 Landmarks for Industry 4.0 in Baden-Württemberg" competition. It also received an investment from Germany's largest seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF).
