For the fifth time, the startup hotspots Munich, Cologne, Berlin, and Hamburg crowned their Startup Champs. This year’s competition theme was fintech and was interpreted broadly in terms of content. A high-caliber investor jury selected four regional winners and one overall winner from three companies each from Germany’s leading startup hubs. Munich was represented by the startups Sub Capital, Onpier, and Pigtie.
The city title ultimately went to Sub Capitals. The company offers its customers an automated investment strategy based on artificial intelligence. The vision behind it is to develop a fair product for private investors in the long term and thereby achieve greater equality in financial markets. The startup now represents Munich at the international startup conference Slush in November in Helsinki. Additionally, Sub Capitals will have its own booth at the Munich Startup Festival.
The circle of twelve finalists also included the Munich startups Onpier and Pigtie. Onpier is an industry-neutral B2B2C platform for insurance-independent services. By connecting to Onpier, insurance companies can offer their customers additional services that go beyond classic coverage solutions. The microinvesting app Pigtie helps millennials with investing. To get started with their own financial planning, users of the platform round up their transactions to the nearest euro and invest these roundups in ETFs.
Startup Champs overall victory goes to Hamburg
However, the title “Startup Champ 2024” goes to a fintech from the north. The Hamburg startup Participayed has developed a payment software solution for the social economy. This is intended to enable people in care to participate in digital life while simultaneously reducing the administrative burden in care facilities.
Startup Champs emerged from close collaboration between Munich Startup, Werk1, Berlin Partner, Köln Business, and Hamburg Invest and serves to network the respective ecosystems. The pitch competition helps increase the visibility of young companies and is thus an important impetus for the further development of Germany as a startup location. This year, the event was part of the Fintech Festival FIBE in Berlin.
