After a little hiatus post-pandemic, we were finally back with the popular Rheinland Pitch Winter Finals format, this year in KOMED, Cologne!
The Rheinland Pitch was founded in 2013 and grew to become Germany’s largest startup pitching event. It is open to all startups (for free) and a public audience on a regular basis.
Check https://rheinlandpitch.de for the next event.
Recently I had the honor to be invited back as a juror at the Demo Night for Ignition+ support program for early-stage startups in Düsseldorf. At the Demo Night, the jury decides who will get the next funding.
And the winner was… OSPHIM! The team I just happened to be coaching in the same batch. (I swear I didn’t have to bribe the other jurors much… Just kidding – they would have won with or without my vote, it was that solid).
UPDATE: OSPHIM went on to win the German national startup competition “Gründungswettbewerb – Digitale Innovationen”, organised by The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWK)!Â
Recently I was humbled and excited to be invited to mentor the startups at the kick-off event “Greentech Pitch ‘n’ Answer!” for the Greentech Meets NRW initiative at Digitalhub Aachen’s Digital Church.
Check out the following startups that participated in the event:
BaaS Energy – Battery as a Service, replacing diesel generators.
CHARGEUNITY – Charging stations for electric automotive that private individuals can invest in.
EAS – Recycling synthetic materials by pyrolysis reactors for industry.
ivilion – A new way of building batteries, saving costs, adding capacity, better thermal management.
The summer finals format is finally BACK from the pandemic slumber – completely sold out in Düsseldorf!
And the Rheinland Pitch Summer Finals 2024 winners were…
Climate Tech:Â Regascold
Digital Health:Â skinsure
Generative KI:Â comdaily
The spectacular Rheinland Pitch Winter Finals format is back!
And what a spectacular Rheinland Pitch Winter Finals 2024 it was in KOMED, Cologne!
This year, based on the experience and feedback gathered from doing this for over 10 years now, we mixed it up a little to make it even more interesting for the audience – and to give even more startups the exposure: We decided to try three different categories with three startups pitching in each.
The categories were Sustainability, Generative AI, and Female Entrepreneurship. The finalists were:
Sustainability:
Generative AI:
Female Entrepreneurship:
And then the startups pitched…
The jury considered each pitches, asked questions… With the Rheinland Pitch finals format we have a panel of expert judges that count for 50% of the weight of the votes together with 50% of the audience.
The audience asked questions…
The audience also voted…
And then it was time for the classic networking break with Currywurst.
Networking is at least half the value of the event.
And it wouldn’t been possible to put on a flawless event without a lot of great helpers!
And the winners were…
Sustainability: Fainin GmbH
Generative AI: LABNODE
Female Entrepreneurship: Qizifi Learning
It’s a wrap! See you in 2024! Stay tuned to https://rheinlandpitch.de