For the sixth time now, Germany’s leading startup hubs Munich, Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg crowned their Startup Champs. This year’s search was for the best solution in the field of AI in a B2B context. An expert jury consisting of Markus Gick from XDeck, John Lange from AI.Fund, Marian Gläser from Brighter AI and Fabian Heil from Munich Innovation Ecosystem, determined the winning startups. From three startups per city, one regional champion was selected and ultimately an overall champion was crowned.
For Munich, the startups Jessy Works, Lynkt and Beetroute entered the race. Jessy Works secured the regional victory. The startup develops AI accounting staff specifically for tax consultancies. The system works directly in existing programs without additional software. Jessy takes on tasks such as receipt booking, dunning or bank reconciliation, providing immediate relief. Tax consultants can save time, reduce costs and increase their efficiency.
Like all regional champions, Jessy was delighted to receive a ticket for the Cheftreff Summit and the international startup conference Slush 2026. There were also a one-year membership for the Bulb platform and special prizes from the respective savings banks to win. Stadtsparkasse München sponsored a stand including pitch opportunity at the next Munich Startup Festival.
The twelve finalists also included the Munich startups Lynkt and Beetroute. Lynkt’s AI creates a digital twin of all company data and networks it automatically. This makes information findable, harmonized and usable for AI applications – without any system change. Beetroute, on the other hand, is working on an app that is intended to make grocery shopping easier for users. Based on digital shopping lists, the AI provides information about which supermarkets offer which items at what price.
Overall winner comes from Hamburg
The title “Startup Champ 2025” went to Hamburg for the second consecutive time. The startup Cloudsupplies combines IT service monitoring and artificial intelligence to automatically solve routine tasks in IT. With this solution, Cloudsupplies secured the overall victory in the form of an investment from XDeck worth 300,000 euros (subject to successful due diligence review) as well as executive coaching from Microsoft and access to the Microsoft AI Leadership Circle.
Arno Eggers, Head of Munich Startup, comments:
“The cooperation of the ‘Startup Champs’ impressively demonstrates how much innovative power is in our German startup hubs. The participant field in this year’s pitch competition was again very strong. Munich had three outstanding startups competing. Although the overall victory this year went to Hamburg, it underscores the strength of our local AI ecosystem. The cooperation creates valuable visibility and connects the scenes of our cities. Together, we are setting an important impetus for Germany as a startup location.”
The initiative Startup Champs Germany emerged from the close collaboration of Munich Startup, Werk1, Berlin Partner, Cologne Business and Hamburg Invest and serves to network the respective ecosystems.
