These are the winners of IDEE-Förderpreis and Health Innovation Award
Two startup competition finals took place in Hamburg on 23 November. Shit2Power won the IDEE-Förderpreis, while TimeTeller was successful at the Health Innovation Award.
IDEE-Förderpreis for a new way of generating energy
The Berlin startup Shit2Power, founded by Nina Heine, beat four other finalists to win the main prize of 50,000 euros at the IDEE-Förderpreis, which has been awarded exclusively to female entrepreneurs since 1997. Originally, 162 applications were received for the competition organised by the coffee company J.J. Darboven. Shit2Power utilises the waste product sewage sludge as a sustainable source of energy. With the help of containerised plants, the company extracts renewable energy or green hydrogen from the sludge. Its thermo-chemical process turns wastewater into a resource and significantly reduces electricity and disposal costs.
Second place and 10,000 euros went to Anina Langhans and Helena Rapprich from LipoCheck and a health platform for the treatment of the fat cell disease lipoedema. Dr Najoua Bolakhrif from GLAPE was awarded third place and 5,000 euros. She and her team have developed a glass that can be bent almost at will using laser technology. Also reaching the final were Angelique Thummerer and Katja Wagner from TURNS, who are tackling the growing problem of the textile industry's environmental impact with high-quality recycled yarns. Finally, Verena Ziegler from BEAWEAR took also part in the final event of the IDEE-Förderpreis. With the help of a 3D body scan, she enables her customers to create a digital twin of themselves for custom-fit clothing.
TimeTeller continues its winning streak at the Health Innovation Award
2023 was a good year for the Hamburg-based health startup TimeTeller. In July, founder Angela Relógio was successful at Female StartAperitivo, followed in mid-November by an award worth 32,000 euros at the nationwide competition “Gründerwettbewerb – Digitale Innovationen“. Now she has won for the third time at Health Innovation Award. TimeTeller owes this to a process that determines the optimal time for cancer treatment and is based on the patient's internal biological clock. The prize includes an annual membership of the Health Innovation Port, whose partners are the medical technology company Philips, Techniker Krankenkasse, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, Asklepios Kliniken and the City of Hamburg.
The competition, in which over 50 startups from all over Germany took part, was held under the motto "Patient Empowerment". Accordingly, five further pitches were on the programme for the final, which focused on better medical help and education for patients. The offerings consisted mainly of apps, but also hardware components such as a measuring device for the body's water balance or a special lamp for phototherapy for skin diseases. There were also solutions to make radiological findings and patient consent for surgical procedures easier to create and understand.
