OUT OF THE BOX.NRW: competition for digital start-ups

With the competition, the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digitalisation rewards digital start-ups from North Rhine-Westphalia that think “OUT OF THE BOX”. The competition will also take place in 2022 – nominate a start-up now.

Nominate digital start-ups for OUT OF THE BOX.NRW 2022 now – either online at outofthebox.nrw or in the OOTB box. Start-ups cannot apply themselves. The box will stop at various locations in North Rhine-Westphalia (current dates and locations here). Afterwards, an online community vote and a jury of experts will decide which start-ups make it to the finals at the PIRATE Summit. Here, the finalists will once again face the community and a jury of experts in the summer of 2022. The jury consists of international investors and experts.

OUT OF THE BOX.NRW is a competition for young start-ups from North Rhine-Westphalia that pursue a digital business model. With a total of 50,000 euros in prize money, OOTB is one of the most highly endowed competitions for start-ups in Germany. In addition, the prize gives start-ups the chance to present themselves to top-class investors. This also allows them to make a wide range of new contacts.

The prize opens many doors for winning companies. In addition, there is prize money:

  1. Prize: 25,000 euros
  2. Prize: 15,000 euros
  3. Prize: 10.000 Euro

The PIRATE Summit is an extraordinary start-up conference: The more than 1,000 participants are mainly early-stage start-ups. The goal is to bring creative minds together, share knowledge and celebrate entrepreneurship via expert sessions, workshops and pitches.

On September 1, 2021, the OUT OF THE BOX.NRW 2021 was awarded. First place and with it the prize money of 25,000 euros was won by Clinomic GmbH from Aachen. Second place and prize money of 15,000 euros went to the start-up GREENbimlabs GmbH from Aachen. Third place and 10,000 euros went to ENLYZE GmbH from Cologne. All details about the award ceremony can be found at wirtschaft.nrw (in German only).

Citizens were able to vote in the competition to determine which nominees would move on to the OOTB finals. In addition to this vote, the vote of the expert jury also helped decide who the eleven finalists were.

These eleven start-ups had the chance to present themselves digitally at PIRATE LIVE. The otherwise held PIRATE Summit had to be postponed for the second time due to the Corona pandemic and will take place in 2022. Then, start-ups will not only be allowed to present themselves in front of the jury. A highly networked and sociable audience of investors, corporates, entrepreneurs and top decision-makers will also be watching.

All Information on the competition can be found here.