Christoph Berger from Vilisto wins at the EIT Awards 2022
For the ninth time, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) has presented the EIT Awards. One of the winners comes from Hamburg: Christoph Berger, founder of the startup Vilisto, received the innovation award in the "Venture" category. In addition, two other awards went to Germany.
Vilisto helps companies save energy
Christoph Berger took first place in the Venture Award category for developing a self-learning thermostat to improve energy efficiency in non-residential buildings. In offices and educational facilities, many rooms are unused 80 percent of the time but are heated continuously because usage patterns are usually not taken into account. Vilisto can help companies and municipalities save up to 32 percent of their heating consumption and reduce their CO₂ emissions. In the same category, Hans Heyn took third place. His startup Smart4Diagnostics offers a solution for optimizing blood analyses.
Other winners from Germany, France, Austria and Italy
Catherine Schreiber, CEO and co-founder of ADVITOS in Munich, took first place at the Women Leadership Award for developing a 4-in-1 organ support therapy for critically ill patients. Together with Dr. Bernhard Kreymann, her co-founder, she conceived the device from scratch and developed it from an idea to an EU-approved product. Today, she runs a fully certified medtech company with 70 employees that has won numerous awards.
Also a first-place winner was Anna Vanderbruggen from France, whose startup Erzlabor is developing a new method for extracting graphite from lithium-ion batteries. This brought her success in the "CHANGE" category. The Innovators Award was secured by Bernhard Adler from Austria for a rotary heat pump. The Public Award went to Sabrina Maria Malpede of ACT Blade Ltd, which develops the lightest, most controllable and sustainable wind turbine blade on the market. The first place is worth 50,000 euros, second 20,000 euros and third 10,000 euros. The complete list of winners can be found here.
