Every year, young digital companies from the start-up initiatives of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) can apply for the “Digital Startup of the Year” award. Start-up competition – Digital innovations also include funding programs such as EXIST, High-tech start-up fund, Invest, Digital Hub Initiative and the German Accelerator One of the additional conditions for participation: The founders must have generated a minimum turnover of 100,000 euros in the past twelve months.
With this award, the BMWK honors companies that have successfully implemented their digital startup ideas in a short period of time and are pursuing promising plans for further growth. In addition to three prizes of €100,000 awarded by a jury, there will also be an audience award of €10,000, in which the audience selects the startup with the best video contribution in an online vote.
“Innovation begins with the courage to do things differently”
This year's public awards ceremony took place on October 7 as part of the Digital Technologies Days 2024 in Berlin. Franziska Brantner, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, presented the awards and said:
"Innovation begins with the courage to do things differently and the determination to do them better. Today, we celebrate not only the digital solutions our award winners have developed, but also the courage and determination that have taken them and their ideas this far and will continue to take them even further."
This year's award winners also include two Munich-based startups: Pina Earth secured first place, endowed with €50,000, and Certivity took second place, receiving €30,000. Third place goes to Elona Health from Düsseldorf and Logistikbude from Dortmund. The Dortmund-based company also secured the Audience Award.
Munich's winning startups
Pina Earth develops certified climate protection projects with the goal of making forests in Germany climate-resilient. The Munich-based startup's forest conversion projects store additional CO2 by making forests biodiverse and climate-resilient against increasing heat, storms, and drought. Using AI-based technology, Pina Earth quantifies CO2 reduction performance and enables companies to invest in high-quality climate protection projects.
Certivity With its platform, the startup aims to digitize, simplify, and accelerate regulatory review in automotive development. To this end, the solution can be integrated into the development process to seamlessly connect the legal and regulatory world with the technical realm. In this way, the startup aims to enable smarter, safer, more transparent, more efficient, and more cost-effective management of regulatory requirements.
