Investor Days Thuringia celebrates its 10th anniversary: Bold, international, forward-looking

Erfurt, June 4, 2025

Ten Investor Days Thuringia – ten times innovation with impact.

That was it, the long-awaited Edition X of Investor Days Thuringia! Today, over 300 players from the innovation ecosystem met in Erfurt. Startups, growth companies, investors and innovation enthusiasts from all over Germany came together to present new innovations, inspire each other and exchange ideas. The Investor Days Thuringia connect startups with the right investors.

The mission: Pitch innovations, secure investment and successfully establish them on the market.

On Wednesday morning, 10 selected innovative scale-ups presented themselves at the Horticultural Museum in Egapark. The audience consisted of interested investors. The best conditions for an exclusive exchange about future-oriented technologies from Thuringia and investment opportunities in excellent teams!

The 10th edition of the Investor Days Thuringia continued at Petersberg Erfurt. Christiane Kilian (Director of the Foundation for Technology, Innovation and Research Thuringia) helped initiate the Investor Days Thuringia 2016: “The Investor Days Thuringia are taking place for the 10th time this year – that’s a huge success! It takes people with courage to bring their ideas from Thuringia to the world. The IDT is a space where precisely this courage meets capital, networks and tailwind.”

Katja Butzmann, Managing Director of bm|t beteiligungsmanagement thüringen gmbh, pleaded for investments in Thuringia: “The Investor Days Thuringia are a success story and a promise of innovation for today and the future. Today’s pitches show impressively that there are outstanding innovations and ambitious teams in Thuringia that are worth investing in.

A total of 33 start-ups presented themselves to guests from all over Germany this year – 20 of them pitched live on the big stage. AI, health tech, energy solutions: The pitches showed just how much innovative diversity there is in the country!

Colette Boos-John, Thuringia’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Rural Areas, was also impressed by the variety of innovations: “The Investor Days Thuringia are a showcase for the wealth of ideas and innovative strength of our Free State. This is where creative start-ups and SMEs meet committed investors – a strong platform for sustainable growth and future-proof partnerships.”

Among the pitchers were 6 promising Thuringian startups from our Thuringian Regional Innovation Program (TRIP).As an accelerator program of the Free State of Thuringia, TRIP brings its participants to investment maturity every year, creates a solid basis for market entry and ultimately brings the most promising startups to the pitch stage at the Investor Days Thuringia.

International impetus from South Africa
A special highlight of Edition X: the partner country South Africa, which was represented by 3 innovative companies. The delegation impressively demonstrated the extent to which international cooperation can enrich Thuringia as a location for innovation. In recent years, Investor Days Thuringia has cooperated with Japan, Indonesia and Israel, among others, and hosted start-ups from all over the world.

Applause for the pitch winners
At the end of the first day, the most convincing startup pitches were honored with the coveted Pitch Awards. They were selected by a jury of investors and, for the Audience Award, by the audience. The 2025 winners are:

STIFT & bm|t prize: PartPrinZ
Cash prize: € 3,000

Prize from EY and VC Magazin: Hopper Mobility GmbH
Non-cash prize: € 2,000 Consulting services

Prize from LeoBlu Patent Attorneys: mechIC
Non-cash prize: € 2,500 consulting services

Prize from GRUENDELPARTNER Legal advice: Truion
Prize in kind: € 1,500 Consulting services

Public prize of the BMWi’s de:hub initiative: WaterLamp
Non-cash prize: access to the de:hub network and a stand at a trade fair

Tomorrow’s day 2 of the Investor Days Thuringia: Edition X, which will focus on internationalization. To this end, the Investor Days Thuringia are cooperating with theEnterprise Europe Network ThuringiaandThuringia Internationalat theState Development Corporation of Thuringia.