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THE FOUNDERS FESTIVAL
SEP 27 - OCt 2, 2020
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Startup
pitch
THE PRETZEL AWARD 2020
100 chosen startups are fighting in different industry clusters to reach the grand finale. A group of international prime VCs and investors will nominate and challenge the participants in the first rounds to compete for the “Golden Pretzel” (public voting) on Center Stage in front of 2,500 attendees. The competition focuses exclusively on the product or service of your startup. This year’s motto is: “Show, don’t tell”.
HOW to apply
Startups with investors
Please ask your VC, invested angel, or business incubator to nominate you.
Send
MessageAPPLY NOW
Application starts in may
Bootstrapped startups
You’re a bootstrapped startup and don’t have an investor to nominate you?
APPLY
hereAPPLY NOW
Application starts in may
Third Batch
2,499€
Investors
You are a VC, business angel, accelerator or business incubator?
Nominate
StartupsAPPLY NOW
Application starts in may
Third Batch
2,129€
Ask your investor to vouch for you
Please send the link below to your investor and ask him/her to nominate your company. As soon as we receive the recommendation we will get in touch with you.
https://form.jotformeu.com/81301681944355
Copy
For 2020, we decided to do a recommendation-only format to increase the quality of the presenting startups even further.
HOW TO WIN?
REQUIREMENTS
You can only apply after a prior recommendation by an invested angel, VC or business incubator (or a successful request). Further you need to have:
1. A MVP or an existing product
2. Not more than series A funding
WHAT are the participation costs?
Every team accepted for the competition is granted 1 free ticket (3-day conference pass for one person).
Every additional team member needs to acquire a startup ticket.
A priceless experience
A trip to Sir Richard Branson's own Necker Island? Being part of the Extreme Tech Challenge? Meeting awesome people from all over the world? #Truestory! This is a once in a lifetime experience and a prize money can't buy; and YOU have the chance to get it!

The winner will travel to Sir Richard Branson's very own Necker Island to be part of the
30,000 $ AWS Credits for each of the six finalists
AWS is a secure cloud services platform, offering compute power, database storage, and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow. Millions of customers are currently leveraging AWS to build applications with increased flexibility, scalability and reliability.
250,000 € special TV Media Prize for B2C startups
The ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator will hand out another great prize. One of the 100 competing startups - which has to have a B2C focus - will win a TV media volume worth 250,000€!
“Winning the pitch was a game-changer for our company”
Maria Driesel
inveox
Winner of Startup Pitch 2018
Participants 2018
214 Technologies Inc. (DBA Trueface)
Trueface computer vision solutions augment existing camera feeds into intelligent, actionable data capable of identifying persons of interest, objects and more.
Country:
United States
Aircloak GmbH
Aircloak is a startup that develops software solutions, enabling the immediate, safe, and legal sharing or monetization of sensitive datasets
Country:
Germany
BANKSapi GmbH
BANKSapi helps banks and insurers to redefine banking services, improve bancassurance services and increase digital customer interactions.
Country:
Germany
BULLET Global GmbH
Companies that use BULLET receive their letters digitized via email and the paper documents are automatically archived. In the second step, the digitized documents can be entered into other systems (e.g. DATEV or SAP).
Country:
Germany
Beep Analytics ApS
Beep Analytics is a Danish start-up, with roots tapping into more than 25 years hands-on aerospace industry experience, tackling some real industrial B2B challenges for hundreds of suppliers to Airbus and Boeing, with potential for other industries.
Country:
Denmark
Blickfeld
Blickfeld develops unique “Light Detection and Ranging” (LiDARs) and object detection and mapping software.
Country:
Germany
Show more
Building Radar
Building Radar informs you about new and current construction projects. You are able to find new construction projects, track current construction projects, track key accounts (e.g. architects) to stay informed about their activities.
Country:
Germany
CENOS
We connect the best of open source simulation tools into a single, user-friendly platform to drop software price and necessary engineering skills down to the SME level, to help them replace physical prototyping with virtual testing
Country:
Latvia
Crashtest Security
Crashtest Security redefines web application security testing. It offers a fully automated vulnerability scanner enhanced with artificial intelligence for the needs of the agile developer.
Country:
Germany
CrossEngage
CrossEngage integrates all data available (user data, behavioral data etc.), adding easy-to-use customer journey and segmentation tools, and connects this setup to best-of-breed solutions for any channel used by our clients.
Country:
Germany
EnlightAID
EnlightAID is a transparency platform that allows public tracking of donation use, bringing trust back to philanthropy. Our goal is to enable real-time auditing by using AI and blockchain, reducing costs and flagging corruption attempts.
Country:
Norway
Enuu
We are MaaS company based in Switzerland but with an international focus. We disrupt the first and last miles of our users' daily journey.
Country:
Switzerland
Eupry
Quality personnel in the health care-, food- and medical industry spends countless of hours tracking temperatures, reacting on deviations and managing calibrations. Euprys eliminates this and adds higher quality - it's easy!
Country:
Denmark
FRAMELESS
Frameless is building a novel software application that enables quick & easy capturing of entire indoor/outdoor places and converting them to immersive digital content using smartphone. This content can be augmented/shared/viewed on multiple devices
Country:
Austria
FinCompare GmbH
FinCompare addresses small and medium sized enterprises (SME) requiring financing needs. Through the online platform www.fincompare.de, the start-up enables access to various financing solutions of more than 200 Banks, Financial Providers & FinTechs.
Country:
Germany
ForceManager
A mobile-based sales assistant application designed to track sales and maximize the performance of teams.
Country:
Spain
Genially Web SL
Genially is an online tool aimed to create interactive and animated contents free and easily. Online contents like these can be used to enrich websites and blogs, or as a communication tool. No programming or designing skills needed. Easily shared.
Country:
Spain
GoStudent GmbH
GoStudent provides a free homework chat, 1-1 online video tutoring and 1-Many Live Online Classes for students between the age of 10-20.
Country:
Austria
Grover (ByeBuy Global Operations GmbH)
Grover gives you the freedom of renting. We help you access the best of the tech world on a flexible basis: pay monthly, keep it as long as you want, and if you love it, buy it.
Country:
Germany
Heartbeat Medical
We are a SaaS company enabling Hospitals (Charité, Helios, Sana, etc.) to measure and improve the quality of their medical treatments by the collection of Patient-reported Outcomes.
Country:
Germany
Holo-Light
Holo-Light connects the real and the digital world and enables precise interaction with virtual content. As a software development company we primarily use head-mounted displays to optimize industrial processes and increase efficiencies.
Country:
Germany
Humaniq
Humaniq is a new generation financial services platform with its own cryptocurrency, which is aimed at reducing poverty amongst millions of people living in the emerging economies.
Country:
United Kingdom
Instaffo GmbH
Our solution allows companies to automate the HR’s candidate search and preselection processes and acts as a recruiting autopilot so that HR teams have more time for face-to-face interaction, hiring processes and other valuable work.
Country:
Germany
KEWAZO
KEWAZO develops a robotic transportation system for construction sites. In scaffolding, the solution improves efficiency, addresses labor shortage and saves at least 30% of installation costs by providing a flexible and safe material transportation.
Country:
Germany
Kopernikus Automotive UG (haftungsbeschraenkt)
Kopernikus converts modern cars into self-driving cars. We offer a retro-fit kit for the car. In our app-store you can purchase any of our partners’ self-driving solutions, download it onto your car, activate it and are ready to be driven.
Country:
Germany
LOEWI
LOEWI provides an end-to-end platform for personalized health & nutrition, applying the methods of the olympic examination center in Munich. From the finger-prick bloodtest for nutrient analysis to personalized supplements based on individual needs.
Country:
Germany
Lemon One
Photos are the nr 1 revenue driver for all online business such as Airbnb, Amazon & ImmoScout. However sourcing visual content is very complex. Lemon One combines order efficiently & can therefore deliver high quality visuals across Europe within 48h
Country:
Germany
Luminovo Artificial Intelligence GmbH
We build deep learning products that make your business shine. You understand what makes your business tick. We know how to solve business problems with the help of deep learning.
Country:
Germany
Mecuris
We team up with O&P professionals to co-create - with users & wearers - custom O&P products. Our digital mindset + 3D printing know-how synergise in the Mecuris Solution Platform, simplifying the work of O&P professionals & enriching wearers' life.
Country:
Germany
MindZip.net GmbH
Today we help more than 80k users from all countries in many languages to get smarter every day. Our user base is organically grown (we did not yet do marketing or PR), or growth accelerates. Several companies are interested to cooperate with us.
Country:
Germany
Mojin Robotics GmbH
Mojin Robotics is a manufacturer for service robots and provides automation solutions for retail, hospitality and health care.
Country:
Germany
MotionMiners GmbH
Our young team of IT, hardware and logistics experts develops technology for manual process analysis we call Motion Mining. Currently, we are bootstrapping our company with the help of revenues from first customer projects.
Country:
Germany
MotionsCloud
We provide claims modules to streamline and automate claims processes with mobile tech, AI image recognition tech and video communication tech. We help insurer to reduce claims cycle time, reduce processing cost and improve customer experiences.
Country:
Germany
NEXD
NEXD: Helping brands, agencies and publishers take audience engagement to the next level on mobile and desktop, with dazzling interactive branded experiences.
Country:
Estonia
Newsenselab GmbH
Newsenselab GmbH is a digital therapeutics company. M-sense, the first product, helps migraine and headache patients to identify individual triggers of the attacks. The software then compiles a therapy program tailored to the patients symptoms.
Country:
Germany
November
November cleans up the old-fashioned and dusty end of life market with a digital, fresh and contemporary approach.
Country:
Germany
Opinary GmbH
OPINARY MAKES OPINIONS MATTER. With interactive content that gives users a voice, helping publishers and brands reach, understand and convert their most valuable audiences.
Country:
Germany
Orion Vault
We are creating new Digital Asset Class that combined with innovative business model will open art market to millions of investors around the world and establish trustworthy and transparent environment for art investments and donations.
Country:
Switzerland
PROFISHOP GmbH
Located in Bremen with a top team, millions in sales, over 10% growth from month to month - We supply b2b customers in three european countries with mro articles and heavy equipment directly from manufacturer to b2b customer.
Country:
Germany
Picsure
Piscure is a tech company with AI solutions focused on the insurance industry. We are five humans at the front and 40 different trained machines at the back of​ a global platform with AI solutions for the insurance sector.
Country:
Germany
PlanRadar GmbH
PlanRadar is a cloudbased SaaS solution for construction documentation, taskt and defect management in construction & real estate projects. We offer a web application for all browsers and native apps for all smartphones and tablets.
Country:
Austria
Pxio GmbH
Pxio is a software infrastructure for businesses to easily collaborate on digital visual content. We replace video cables with the Pxio app for PCs, mobiles, displays, and video walls to intelligently and seamlessly exchange realtime video streams.
Country:
Germany
RealSynth GmbH
We at RealSynth aim at minimizing the need of field data and field tests. We build fully tagged, realistic virtual environments to train and test AI faster, cheaper, and safer than the current manual process.
Country:
Germany
Sarita
The global number of people aged 60+ is expected to double from 2015 to 2050, reaching 2.1 billion.Sarita CareTech is making innovative hardware and software which brings independence to the elderly and supports the care in own homes and institutions.
Country:
Denmark
Sensitel Inc
Sens City is a Silicon Valley startup with offices in Santa Clara (USA), developing AI technology that leverages the full potential of connected and autonomous vehicles to improve flow of goods and services in urban environments.
Country:
United States
SensuSport
Our technology takes sensori-motor learning to the next level, in Golf and the biggest sports of today. We provide athletes of all levels with a new learning experience to develop and refine their ball and body feel.
Country:
Germany
Signaturit Solutions, S.L.
Signaturit is a trust service provider that offers eSignatures, eDelivery & eID services, in accordance with Regulation EU 910/2014 (eIDAS). Companies that use our trust services improve their efficiency by streamlining daily transactions.
Country:
Spain
Smartlook
Smartlook is a qualitative analytics solution seamlessly combining user replays, heatmaps and event tracking. Get deeper insight into user behavior and see why your users don't convert. We reached $60 000 MRR in 16 months since launch.
Country:
Czech Republic
Solos
SOLOS Mirror tracks body movements, without the user having to carry anything on the body and gives visual instant real-time feedback on the mirror surface. SOLOS Mirror is the first complete digital support for free and functional training areas.
Country:
Germany
Spacebase
We're a worldwide booking platform for business events and workshops. Our purpose is to change the way people meet by breaking boundaries and offering extraordinary location. We are implemented in 15 countries, with over 3k venues in our portfolio.
Country:
Germany
Targomo GmbH
Providing platforms and products to allow companies to access and analyze their data esp. data with geo relation.
Country:
Germany
UrmO
We are building the UrmO, a personal light electric vehicle (PLEV). The highlight is the patented folding mechanism, which makes it super practical. As a last mile device you will be able to carry it with you everywhere you go.
Country:
Germany
Vermietet.de
Creating an ecosystem where landlords, tenants and property managers interact digitally to improve all aspects of living, Vermietet.de is a platform that helps thousands of landlords with more than 100.000 apartments to manage their property online.
Country:
Germany
Vicarius
Vicarius is using a proprietary ML engine to identify popular binary locations in third party and OS binaries by analyzing past attacks, those targets which will be attacked in the future along a proactive protection of them using
Country:
Israel
Vidrona
Vidrona (a European Space Agency incubated business) is precision predictive energy asset management company that utilises computer vision data analysis and analytics to generate insights from data collected using sensors on drones, robots, satellite
Country:
Germany
Wingly
We are a platform connecting private pilots with passengers to share the costs of a flight. Pilots posts the flights they have empty seats in and passengers can book them. Passengers can request flights and pilots take them.
Country:
France
YodelTalk GmbH
Yodel.io is the cloud based SMB phone solution to automate customer voice calls and integrate them in your favourite business SaaS tools. It allows companies to take the knowledge base of their business and incorporate it into call flows.
Country:
Austria
arculus GmbH
The solution consists in breaking the line, separating all workstations, and placing them as independent modules in a 2D grid with any shape and size. AGVs transport both products and materials between stations, based on our optimising algorithm.
Country:
Germany
byrd technologies GmbH
The easiest way to deal with your e-commerce logistics is by using our web-app which enables you to manage all your orders within a few clicks: connect your favorite onlineshop platform - we store, package, ship your products for you worldwide.
Country:
Austria
casavi GmbH
casavi provides a service and productivity solution for digital property management. Acting as a central hub it connects all key stakeholders – property owners, tenants and service providers - on a Cloud-platform controlled by the property manager.
Country:
Germany
cashpresso | Credi2 GmbH
cashpresso: consumer finance linking customers, shops and banks. Our streamlined register-and-pay process allows customers paying in full or instalments, at the push of a button. We help shops to boost sales and banks to win customers at low costs.
Country:
Austria
chatchamp UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
We allow e-commerce businesses to generate new leads and convert customers using the channels their customers use: Messenger Apps! We have sent over 1 Million messages with over 30% Click-Rates!
Country:
Germany
dahmakan
dahmakan is vertically integrated, last mile food delivery service. It combines large scale operations with full-stack business model to deliver exceptional customer experience at unprecedented unit economics.
Country:
Malaysia
doks. innovation GmbH
Operational since January 2018, we develop solutions for logistics and industrial companies to make the automation of stocktaking and data management processes possible. Thus a digital twin of reality is possible with the push on a button.
Country:
Germany
drivEddy GmbH
We are the smart solution on the road to your driving license and more mobility in your life. We are digitalizing the driving license business and adapt it to the new mobile generation. We change the collaboration between students and teachers.
Country:
Germany
e-bot7 GmbH
Our system analyzes incoming messages, forwards them to the right department, and provides agents with smart answers during the operational business. The AI ​​system is constantly learning, supports your agents and automates more and more responses.
Country:
Germany
everskill
everskill’s award-wining digital coach supports employees to apply training content in daily work – and thus increases training impact by factor 4-6. Numerous DAX companies (e.g. VW, Siemens) and professional service firms (e.g. BCG, EY) rely on us.
Country:
Germany
foodji
We are producer and operator of (currently 7) next generation vending machines named “foodji”. Our company exclusively offers high quality and fresh convenience food. Our on-screen and in-app user interface provides a seamless vending experience.
Country:
Germany
i2x GmbH
i2x is an automatic, customizable speech recognition tool powered by machine-learning. It supports sales and customer support agents in their daily communication on the phone and allows companies to bring transparency into their customer interaction.
Country:
Germany
inveox GmbH
standardizing, streamlining and automating the sample preparation in histopathology, inveox has developed an automation system for labs which significantly improves patient safety by preventing potential misdiagnoses due to sample mishandling
Country:
Germany
jenID Solutions
We believe that protecting identities means protecting values. Our innovative security software is designed to do just that - by facilitating fast, reliable verification of ID documents without compromising on user experience.
Country:
Germany
lengoo GmbH
lengoo.com is Europe's best-in-class solution for technical translations. We use machine learning to automate all workflows around translation projects. 2,500+ companies use our service for translations in more than 400 language combinations.
Country:
Germany
sapaso GmbH
sapaso simplifies and manages recurring payments for its B2B customers. As a full-service provider, we not only process transactions, we also take over default risks, provide an innovative real-time dunning process, debt collection and analytics.
Country:
Germany
shipcloud
Easy to use cloud based shipping platform—solving retailers' problems and driving their success. Thanks to the advanced and award winning technology, shipcloud is part of the digitizing revolution that is imminent in the logistics sector.
Country:
Germany
store2be GmbH
Berlin-based company store2be is the leading marketer of promotion, pop-up and event spaces in Germany, Austria and Switzerland offering more than 3,500 locations in its portfolio.
Country:
Germany
vr-on GmbH
vr-on develops STAGE, a collaborative Virtual Reality platform. We are connecting teams worldwide to simplify and accelerate complex review meetings. The meeting results (decisions and documentation) can easily be connected to other proccesses.
Country:
Germany
x10.ai
x10.ai is an ecosystem with diverse AI chatbot services for chosen industries and use cases. It is a part of AI Today - a community of currently 50+ teams and start-ups, 200+ experts creating value with breakthrough AI and NLP technologies
Country:
Germany
Jury 2019
A high-class jury consisting of top-tier VCs will ensure that only the best startups of each cluster will make it to the finale.
Andreas Etten
Founding Partner
10x
Dr. Christian Saller
General Partner
Holtzbrinck Ventures
Robert Lacher
Founding Partner
Visionaries Club
Michael Treskow
Partner
Eight Roads Ventures
Christopher Steinau
Principal
Northzone
Fritz Oidtmann
Managing Partner
Acton Capital Partners
Moderation
Hannah
Klose
Just enter your email address and you will receive the pitch form.
(Note: application has to be submitted before August 7th, 2017)
Should be Empty:
We are looking for startups who at least have a MVP and less than 3mio. funding.
(Note: Application deadline is August 7th, 2017)
Just enter your email address and you will receive the pitch form.
(Note: application has to be submitted before August 7th, 2017)
APPLY
Should be Empty:
We are looking for startups who at least have a MVP and less than 3mio. funding.
(Note: Application deadline is August 7th, 2017)
FAQ
This year’s format

The 2019 competition focuses exclusively on the product or service of your startup. The motto is: “Show, don’t tell”. You have to demo your product, only!

Show us your product in action and let us know which pain you solve. There should be nothing on history, market size, financials, or team - just tell us specifically demonstrating what your product is capable of doing.

Next to the industry clusters there will be a special track for product launches with respective coverage by the press.

How is the process of participation?

After a prior recommendation by a VC, an invested angel, an industry expert, or a successful request, startups will receive the invitation link to apply for the competition.

Following steps (if you’ve received an invitation to apply):

  1. apply until August 11th, 2019
  2. the international jury will select the participants
  3. get nominated until mid September
  4. present your product on Demo Pitch Stage on September 29th, 2019 and hopefully advance to the next round.
  5. The best startups will pitch on Monday, September 30th at the Center Stage
Who is allowed to apply?

see “requirements” above

I have specific questions, whom do I contact?

Please contact pitch@bitsandpretzels.com for any other pitch queries