5pectre Optix and tœrn secure final tickets for Female StartAperitivo
On September 15, the final of the Female StartAperitivo competition will take place at Hamburg's music club Knust. Eight female-led startups from four northern German states will compete there. The Hamburg representatives, 5pectre Optix and tœrn, have now been selected.
Startups founded by women are still in the minority, but they are definitely on the rise. This became clear on August 31 at the coworking space eeden. There, the qualification pitch for Female StartAperitivo took place, an event that aims to help female founders gain more visibility and contact with investors. Twelve promising and very different ideas and business models were presented. We have already given an overview in our preliminary report.
Better returns management with tœrn
A twelve-member jury and the audience were now able to decide which two female founders would compete against their competitors from Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the final. The first ticket went to Eva Aumüller from tœrn. Her startup tackles the problem of returns in online shopping. In some industries, the rate can be as high as 50%. This causes considerable costs, a lot of administrative work and, last but not least, unnecessary CO2 emissions due to the return shipment.
In many cases, returns could be sent directly to the customer without going through the e-commerce company. The demand would be there, the process would just have to be organized. That's where tœrn comes in. Right now, the startup is still in the pilot phase and is looking for partner companies that would like to put the process to the test. In a commercial city like Hamburg, that shouldn't really be a problem.
First place and the most applause from the audience went to Dr. Ekaterina Zapolnova. She appeared in a lab coat and protective goggles, making her look like a scientist. No wonder, because that's what she is. With her startup 5pectre Optix, she is developing the world's smallest broadband spectrometer, which also costs only a fraction of what is charged for conventional devices.
In her pitch, Ekaterina made it clear that spectroscopy is not a discipline that only takes place in some scientific niche. It helps with pollutant analysis and detects microplastics. It can tell if a vegan lipstick is actually vegan and a diamond is real or a cheap fake. The possible applications, including in industry, are extremely diverse and the global market is worth billions. This convinced and brought 5pectre Optix to the finals of Female StartAperitivo. By the way, there are still free tickets for the event, which you can get here!
