These are the winners of STARTERiN Hamburg 2023!
On March 30, the finale of the female startup competition STARTERiN Hamburg 2023, hosted by Hamburg Startups, took place at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. The audience witnessed six inspiring pitches, the winners are Virginia Thrun from Mom Hunting, Mariam Guede and Lioba Jarju from Black Female Business and Elke Jensen from CityCaddy. The patron of the event was Hamburg's Second Mayor Katharina Fegebank.
The aim of STARTERiN Hamburg is to give more visibility to female founders who are role models for other women. According to the German Startup Monitor 2022, the share of women founding startups is only 20%; in Hamburg, it is slightly higher at 23%. The prize was awarded in three categories: Tech, Impact and Commerce.
Category Tech: Mom Hunting
In the Tech category, two female founder duos qualified for the finals. Alicia Faridi and Maximiliane Tetzlaff are developing fabel, an app that makes it easier to organize care for relatives. Nadine Schneider and Virginia Thrun are the founders of Mom Hunting, a job platform that brings career-minded mothers together with companies looking for qualified executives. The startup has already had its first successes and winning at STARTERiN Hamburg 2023 is now the next.
Category Impact: Black Female Business
In the Impact category, social relevance and addressing issues that have received too little attention to date were important criteria. NOBODYTOLDME by Susanne Liedke is an educational portal about menopause, which is often overlooked as a cause of disease. Black Female Business by Mariam Guede and Lioba Jarju is a network that provides Black female founders with a digital safe space to connect with like-minded people and develop their business ideas. For this, they deserve the title STARTERiN Hamburg 2023.
Category Commerce: CityCaddy
Both finalists in the Commerce category had personal experiences that led to the development of their products. Thea Broszio from Womatics regularly had breast pain when breastfeeding her children and was not satisfied with the home remedies cabbage and curd. So she developed Mama Cooling Gel and has already achieved six-figure sales with it. The winner was Elke Jensen and her CityCaddy. The founder, who is already over 70, is an experienced designer and has developed a shopping trolley that looks elegant and is also highly practical.
Sponsored, among others, by the Startup Unit of Hamburg Invest, STARTERiN Hamburg is part of a series of events and initiatives that aim to strengthen women in the startup scene. Another example is the now nationwide Female StartApperitivo competition, organized by the Hamburg Investors Network. You can find more information on the topic of female founders in this detailed article.
