Think big about innovative business ideas!

High-flyer start-ups selected for 2023

Great joy for Laromed, Lambda9, Nascit, Plantobelly, lvlup!HR and Epic AI. The six young companies made it through to the final of the 5th high-flyer competition and are now looking forward to an intensive start-up trip to San Francisco and Silicon Valley. For the anniversary, there was a special prize for later stage start-ups for the first time. 

Smart solutions

"We are making Silicon Valley green. It's great that we've won this prize," said a delighted Bastian Klemke, who has developed a system for professional moisture monitoring of street trees and urban greenery with his start-up Plantobelly. Clemens Winter from Laromed is also looking forward to the trip to Silicon Valley: "We want to think outside the box and see whether our innovation could also be of interest to the US market." The young company develops smart, fully automated care solutions and is one of the winners in the Later Stage category.

At the award ceremony, Economics Minister Claus Ruhe Madsen, who is also a member of the jury, emphasized: "Germany needs more innovation and Schleswig-Holstein wants to make a decisive contribution to this. There are many business ideas and companies in the north that have the potential to become big and thus have a significant impact on the economy and society."

Think big!

"When it comes to the motto 'Think big!', the focus quickly turns to America and it is precisely this mindset that our start-ups internalize the most on the trip to Silicon Valley, because they experience it first-hand during their encounters with American investors, start-ups and business representatives," explains Axel Schulz, CEO of The Bay Areas. He will be leading the trip again. We are organizing the high-flyer competition for the 5th time together with the StartUp SH and Marketing Club Schleswig-Holstein associations and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Anniversary highlight: In addition to the one-week trip for three early-stage start-ups (up to 3 years old), a special prize has been awarded for three later-stage start-ups (up to 8 years old). The trip is planned for February 2024.

"The later-stage start-ups travel to Silicon Valley for 14 days, giving them an extra week to intensify their new contacts and learn even more about internationalization and growth for their own company," explains Dr. Anke Rasmus, 1st Chairwoman of StartUp SH.

Exchange with founders

Five high-flyer competitions, 18 flight tickets for promising young companies from Schleswig-Holstein: this is only possible thanks to the commitment of numerous established companies and institutions. "We are delighted with the loyalty of our sponsors, who also network the young companies here in Schleswig-Holstein and support them as partners with tips and cooperation. This is another way we are living the spirit of Silicon Valley," emphasizes Börrje Schneider, Chairman of the Marketing Club Schleswig-Holstein. Both the Marketing Club and The Bay Areas presented all nine finalists with a free annual membership for networking on site. In addition to the high-flyers 2023, these are: Con Cubo, GYFF and Zyata.

We look forward to exchanging ideas with all founders!

Our high-flyers:

Photos: Jan Konitzki

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