Munich Startup Award: A look back

2016: It all started in 2016 with Cleverciti Systems. The Munich startup prevailed against around 70 other companies from the region in the pitch competition at Bits. Gabriele Böhmer, editorial director of Munich Startup and jury member, praised the winning team at the award ceremony: “Cleverciti enriches the Munich startup scene through a forward-looking, innovative smart city solution. With the awarding of the ‘Munich Startup Award’, we want to reward Cleverciti for its entrepreneurial spirit and commitment and set a sign.” Cleverciti aims to enable cities and parking lot operators to implement smart and efficient parking lot management with the help of sensor technology. The Munich Startup Award was only a (small) beginning for the smart city startup: in the meantime, Cleverciti has been able to raise over 21 million euros in funding for its venture. (Photo: Munich Startup / Robert Pupeter)

2017: In the second year of the Munich Startup Award, Catchys secured the award. The company, founded in 2015 by Franzi Majer and Magdalena Oehl, was an online meta-search engine for fashion, furniture, watches, and jewelry. As an aggregator, the Munich startup compiled the complete offering of international second-hand and second-season marketplaces and sale offerings from online shops – from Zara to Prada. Franzi Majer, founder and managing director of Catchys, was delighted about the award:
“For me, Munich is the best and most beautiful place to found a startup and build it into a globally successful company. All the more reason for me to be proud of winning the Munich Startup Award! A thousand thanks to Munich Startup for this great award!” In 2017, the Munich startup was acquired by the Eastern European fashion search engine Glami. (Photo: Munich Startup / Robert Pupeter)

2018: Catchys was followed the following year by Inveox. The two founders Maria and Dominik Sievert accepted the prize endowed with 5,000 euros and were visibly delighted with the award: “It is an incredible honor! We are thrilled about the recognition and especially that we have been able to draw so much attention to an essential important topic: healthcare.” Inveox develops digital solutions for pathology laboratories. The Munich company’s technology is intended to prevent unnecessary errors in diagnostics. (Photo: Munich Startup / Christoph Mukherjee)

2019: Munich Startup Award winner 2019 was Hawa Dawa. The air quality monitoring from Hawa Dawa makes it possible to determine and evaluate air quality across the board in real time. At the pitch contest of the founders’ festival Bits & Pretzels, Hawa Dawa prevailed against the Munich competition. Co-founder and CFO Yvonne Rusche said at the award ceremony in the Schottenhamel: “We are very proud to win the Munich Startup Award as a ‘Münchner Kindl’. It shows the incredible support of the Munich ecosystem.” In March 2023, it became known that the Munich startup is being acquired by the Bernard Group. Karim Tarraf, CEO and co-founder of Hawa Dawa, said: “The integration of the Hawa-Dawa solution into the Bernard Group marks a new era in which integrated (environmental) solutions can be offered from a single source.” (Photo: Munich Startup / Tobias Hase)

2020: No Oktoberfest in the first Corona year 2020, but the Bits & Pretzels took place anyway. And so did the awarding of the Munich Startup Award. The startup Pylot, which is now operating under the name Fernride, took home the award this year. The startup, founded by Manage-and-More scholarship holders Hendrik Kramer, Jean-Michael Georg, and Maximilian Fisser, specializes in teleoperation – the remote control of vehicles. In the meantime, Fernride has been able to raise 45 million euros in funding, closing its Series A round with 28.7 million euros in June this year. Hendrik Kramer, CEO and co-founder of Fernride, said: “Since we are fundamentally transforming the way the logistics industry operates, it is crucial to work with some of the industry’s leading players. The strategic investments flowing into our Series A will help accelerate this transformation.” (Photo: Munich Startup / Andreas Gebert)

2022: In 2021, neither Bits nor Oktoberfest took place. But the following year things continued: Winner of the Munich Startup Award 2022 was Pixel Robotics. The robotics startup founded by Johannes and Valentin Plapp in 2020 builds intelligent, perception-driven robots tailored to intralogistics. Through an AI vision infrastructure, a digital twin of the operational area is created. Using this real-time twin, the Munich startup’s robots can work autonomously with their human colleagues. Pixel Robotics was visibly delighted about the Munich Startup Award: “The Bits & Pretzels and the pitch competition were already a huge experience in themselves. The fact that we also win the Munich Startup Award now makes us even happier. We will invest the prize money in the team, on the one hand, because for the last two years we were mainly focused on product development to get it to the customer – that deserves to be celebrated. And part of the money – we are after all a startup – will also be invested directly back into the product.” (Photo: Lukas Lindner / Munich Startup)