From MedTech and artificial intelligence to mobility solutions – today the Investor Days Thuringia presented a wide variety of national and international future technologies in Erfurt and connected the start-up scene with Investors. The best five start-up projects were awarded with prizes.

After two purely digital years, the Investor Day Thuringia took place analog in Erfurt again and brought together about 500 actors of the innovation ecosystem, start-ups, growth companies, investors and industry to put new technologies in the spotlight and initiate cooperations.

The 7th edition of the event again attracted great international interest. Over 90 applications from all over Germany, Italy, Sweden, Uruguay, Switzerland and Indonesia were submitted this year to present innovative business concepts on the pitch stage. This year, Indonesia is represented as a partner country. With its dynamic start-up scene, the country offers many approaches for international knowledge transfer and exchange of experience.

On June 14, Christiane Kilian, Deputy Executive Director of STIFT, and Karin Rabe, Senior Investment Manager of bm|t, opened the event. Afterwards, Wolfgang Tiefensee, Minister of Economics, welcomed the audience: “Founders from Thuringia are regularly represented in the annual ranking of the German TOP-50 start-ups,” the Minister referred to the success of the Free State as a start-up state. This has something to do with the appreciation and support for the topic of start-ups in the state, he said: “We offer the best framework conditions for bringing good business ideas to marketability quickly.” The “Investor Days Thüringen”, for example, have meanwhile become an internationally successful presentation format through which founders can quickly and effectively raise venture capital for their companies. In addition to Tiefensee, the Indonesian Ambassador to Germany, Arif Havas Oegroseno, also addressed the participants of the event.

Afterwards, 20 selected start-ups presented their business concepts on the pitch stage in three minutes each. As usual, the variety of topics was great: MedTech, mobility solutions, automation technology, AI solutions, logistics innovations, GreenTech and much more. Among the pitchers, six promising start-ups from the Thuringian Regional Innovation Program (TRIP) also presented themselves. As the Free State’s accelerator program, TRIP brings its participants to investment readiness at full speed each year and creates a solid foundation for market entry.

Between the pitch sessions, the event offered plenty of space for sharing experiences, inspiration and networking. In the Innovation Arena, the audience could not only take a look at the pitchers’ new technologies, but also discover another 23 start-ups and growth companies and get to know the founders behind them personally. The audience was also inspired in an interactive innovation session by Christian Wehner, Senior Director Innovation Strategy at SAP. His impulse was about allowing a change of perspective and being one step ahead of the competition through innovative ways of thinking.

Applause for the pitch winners!

The highlight of the day was the presentation of the Pitch Awards. In a live vote, the jury as well as the audience selected the best pitch performances for the award. Congratulations to this year’s five winners:

Novu GmbH from Ilmenau
Prize: the STIFT, bm|t and EY
Material prize: € 2,000 Strategy Coaching (EY)
Cash prize: € 2,000 (STIFT and bm|t)

Semodia GmbH from Radebeul
Prize of Treuenburg Venture Capital
Material prize: € 3,000 Consulting services
Cash prize: € 2,000

Cellgo GmbH from Paderborn
Prize of Gruendel & Partner Legal Consulting
Material prize: € 2,000 Legal advice

Elonroad from Sweden
Audience award of Apropro Haarbeck
Material prize: € 2.000 Project management

IDloop GmbH from Jena
Prize of Unternehmen Digital GmbH
Material prize: € 6,600 Consulting services “Digital sales channel for 3 months”.

The second day of the event is dedicated to the exchange between investors and Thuringian growth companies and focuses on transformation processes and the life science industry in Thuringia. After an exclusive event for investors, innovative companies with attractive growth potential from the bm|t portfolio will present themselves with pitches. In addition to the 26 live presentations from various industries, the day will offer inputs and discussions on topics such as Transforming Industries and Open Innovation. For those interested in life sciences, medways e.V. “Future Conference on Medical Technology 2022” will take place in parallel to the main program.

Background

The Investor Days Thuringia are an initiative of the Foundation for Technology, Innovation and Research Thuringia (STIFT) and beteiligungsmanagement thüringen gmbh (bm|t) to bring together innovative start-ups and growth companies with potential cooperation partners as well as investors and business angels every year in June.

Since 1993, STIFT has selflessly promoted science, research and technology along the entire educational and economic development chain. In individual cases, STIFT itself also acts as a financial backer and invests as an early-stage and side investor in promising Thuringian start-ups. STIFT is involved as a co-organizer of the Investor Days as part of the ThEx innovativ project, which is supported by the Thuringian Ministry of Economics, Science and Digital Society with funds from the European Social Fund.

The bm|t beteiligungsmanagement thüringen gmbh (bm|t), based in Erfurt, is the first address for venture capital investments in Thuringia, Germany. bm|t currently manages nine investment funds with a total volume of EUR 350 million. and invests in innovative companies with strong growth potential across all industries and all phases of the company life cycle.