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

With this competition, the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action rewards young digital start-ups from North Rhine-Westphalia that think "OUT OF THE BOX". The winners were honoured on 7 September 2022. Nominate start-ups for 2023 now.

Review of the 2022 winners: Cloud platform, SaaS and trash boats

The winner of this year's competition is the ACCURE Battery Intelligence GmbH, which can look forward to prize money of 25,000 euros. The company has developed a cloud platform to evaluate data from battery systems. The goal: to maximise the safety, reliability and service life of modern battery systems.

Second place went to the start-up Companyon GmbH from Düsseldorf, which was rewarded with prize money of 15,000 euros. With a controlling SaaS solution, Companyon enables intuitive and cost-effective corporate management. The offer is particularly interesting for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Third place and 10,000 euros went to everwave GmbH from Aachen: The start-up uses rubbish boats and river platforms to free rivers from plastic waste. The waste is not only collected, but also detected and analysed for its composition thanks to artificial intelligence.

The start-up anny UG from Aachen received tickets to the PIRATE Summit 2023 in Cologne for fourth place. anny offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution for modern and automated booking management of rooms, equipment, services and other resources.

Background

The final of the 2022 competition, which was held for the third time, took place during the international start-up conference PIRATE Summit in Cologne. The ten OOTB finalists presented their products and business models to an audience of founders, investors and company representatives.

The jury of this year's OUT OF THE BOX.NRW Award consisted of internationally active venture capitalists, representatives of NRW.BANK and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. An audience vote was also held during the finals.

„Der Wettbewerb stärkt die Sichtbarkeit unserer digitalen Start-up-Szene“
Wirtschaftsministerin Mona Neubaur

Review of the 2022 winners: Cloud platform, SaaS and trash boats

The winner of this year's competition is the ACCURE Battery Intelligence GmbH, which can look forward to prize money of 25,000 euros. The company has developed a cloud platform to evaluate data from battery systems. The goal: to maximise the safety, reliability and service life of modern battery systems.

Second place went to the start-up Companyon GmbH from Düsseldorf, which was rewarded with prize money of 15,000 euros. With a controlling SaaS solution, Companyon enables intuitive and cost-effective corporate management. The offer is particularly interesting for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Third place and 10,000 euros went to everwave GmbH from Aachen: The start-up uses rubbish boats and river platforms to free rivers from plastic waste. The waste is not only collected, but also detected and analysed for its composition thanks to artificial intelligence.

The start-up anny UG from Aachen received tickets to the PIRATE Summit 2023 in Cologne for fourth place. anny offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution for modern and automated booking management of rooms, equipment, services and other resources.

Background

The final of the 2022 competition, which was held for the third time, took place during the international start-up conference PIRATE Summit in Cologne. The ten OOTB finalists presented their products and business models to an audience of founders, investors and company representatives.

The jury of this year's OUT OF THE BOX.NRW Award consisted of internationally active venture capitalists, representatives of NRW.BANK and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. An audience vote was also held during the finals.

Rückblick auf die Gewinner 2022: Cloud-Plattform, SaaS und Müllboote

Sieger des diesjährigen Wettbewerbs ist die ACCURE Battery Intelligence GmbH, die sich über ein Preisgeld von 25.000 Euro freuen kann. Das Unternehmen hat eine Cloud-Plattform entwickelt, um Daten von Batteriesystemen auszuwerten. Das Ziel: die Sicherheit, Zuverlässigkeit und Lebensdauer von modernen Batteriesystemen zu maximieren.

Den zweiten Platz belegte das Start-up Companyon GmbH aus Düsseldorf, das mit einem Preisgeld von 15.000 Euro belohnt wurde. Companyon ermöglicht mit einer Controlling-SaaS-Lösung eine intuitive und kostengünstige Unternehmenssteuerung. Das Angebot ist vor allem für kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen interessant.

Platz drei und damit 10.000 Euro gingen an die everwave GmbH aus Aachen: Das Start-up nutzt Müllboote und Flussplattformen, um Flüsse von Plastikmüll zu befreien. Der Müll wird dabei nicht nur gesammelt, sondern dank künstlicher Intelligenz detektiert und auf seine Zusammensetzung analysiert.

Das Start-up anny UG aus Aachen erhielt für den vierten Platz Tickets für den PIRATE Summit 2023 in Köln. anny bietet eine Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Lösung für ein modernes und automatisiertes Buchungsmanagement von Räumen, Equipment, Dienstleistungen und weiteren Ressourcen an.

Hintergrund

Das Finale des diesjährigen Wettbewerbs, der bereits zum dritten Mal ausgetragen wurde, fand im Rahmen der internationalen Start-up-Konferenz PIRATE Summit in Köln statt. Die zehn OOTB-Finalisten präsentierten ihre Produkte und Geschäftsmodelle vor einem Publikum aus Gründerinnen und Gründern, Investorinnen und Investoren sowie Unternehmensvertreterinnen und -Vertretern.

Die Jury des diesjahrigen OUT OF THE BOX.NRW Award setzte sich aus international tätigen Risikokapitalgeberinnen und -gebern, Vertreterinnen und Vertretern der NRW.BANK sowie des Wirtschaftsministeriums zusammen. Während des Finales fand zudem eine Publikumsabstimmung statt.

About the competition

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.

All Information on the competition can be found here.