In the "Start-up Competition – Digital Innovations," a total of 21 teams were awarded prize money totaling €300,000. Four of the winning teams are Munich-based startups. And watch out: For the next award Startups can apply until September 30th.
In the start-up competition – Digital Innovations of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), 21 start-ups impressed with their ideas relating to artificial intelligence (AI), smart data and the Internet of Things. Overall, the Number of AI-based ideas in this round of the competition. Six teams were awarded a main prize of €32,000, and 15 startup teams received prize money of €7,000 each.
Qbound is the main prize winner in the start-up competition – Digital Innovations
The Munich startup Qbound is one of the six main prize winners and receives a prize of 32,000 euros. The startup offers an innovative solution for accessing applications, cloud services and devices in Internet of Things (IoT) The startup claims it is more secure and user-friendly than traditional VPN and firewall systems.
In addition to blockchain, Qbound also uses a concept called 'Software Defined Perimeter'. This not only makes internet-connected devices more secure, but also invisible without successful authentication. Qbound's target audience is IT system administrators in SMEs, who can use this innovative technology to easily monitor, evaluate, and adjust access permissions in networks.
Other winning teams
Three other Munich teams were also honored, each receiving €7,000 in prize money. Among them was the Munich-based startup Ocell, which Aerial image data collected in forestry and agriculture and automatically evaluates them. Ocell equips ultralight aircraft with special sensors that create high-quality, multispectral aerial images, which the startup then analyzes and interprets using machine learning. The intelligent system is already being used in forestry to detect damage early. This reduces costs by approximately 95 percent compared to conventional forest inventories.
Also won AigoraThe Munich-based startup provides researchers and developers with high-quality training datasets for AI-based medical applications. The goal is to support and improve healthcare decisions, diagnoses, and workflows.
The fourth Munich-based winning team is Mergerspot. The startup's market research software aims to bring transparency to medium-sized markets. Companies use the platform for benchmarking against competitors or to identify early market trends. Mergerspot uses machine learning algorithms and natural language processing technology to aggregate data. Both qualitative and quantitative data—such as shareholder structure, business model, or financial metrics—are considered and processed.
The absolute winner of the evening, however, was Etalytics. The Darmstadt-based startup won not only the main prize but also the special "Digitalization in Production" prize, endowed with €10,000. With its AI-based cloud software, the startup supports industrial companies in making their energy management more sustainable and thus reducing energy costs.
The current competition round runs until September 30, 2019. Startups can submit their idea sketches online. Questions about the competition should be sent directly to info@gruenderwettbewerb.de or call the start-up competition team at 030 310078-123.
