The Gunnar-Uldall-Wirtschaftspreis, a business award named after a former Hamburg Senator for Economic Affairs, was won this year by the repeatedly awarded startup CLOUDSUPPLIES. Second and third place went to toern and hobay.
CLOUDSUPPLIES impresses once again with its AI assistant
CDU politician Gunnar Uldall was Senator for Economic Affairs in Hamburg from October 2001 to May 2008. First Mayor at the time was Ole von Beust, who in 2025 became patron of the competition for the first time. In his welcome speech, he emphasised the importance of the social market economy, which the award aims to promote. Almost 20 startups had applied, five were shortlisted and three were ultimately awarded. CLOUDSUPPLIES won the main prize of 10,000 euros for an AI assistant that takes over routine IT tasks, giving IT department employees more time for more creative tasks. This is not CLOUDSUPPLIES' first success in a startup competition; in 2023, it won the jury prize at AI.SUMMIT and in 2025, it won the title at Startup-Champs Germany.
Awards for returns software and a platform for children's leisure activities
Second place, with a prize of 3,000 euros, was awarded to toern. This startup tackles an issue that is particularly relevant in the run-up to Black Friday and Christmas: returns to online shops. For some products, the return rate is over 50%, which causes an enormous amount of administrative work. toern offers a software solution that also helps to strengthen customer loyalty. Third place and 2,000 euros went to hobay, a platform for booking leisure activities for children. The main selling point here was the idea of getting children away from screens and into more healthy sporting activities.
