Promising business models with innovative technologies, marketing and sales concepts - that is the focus of the SEGEL SETZEN! business plan competition. This year's winners were announced at a "Night of Innovation" on 16 November at the Pomeranian State Museum in Greifswald. The teams "Solentil", "Adeapt Engineering" and "EcoBilge" took the first three places. The special prize from the University of Greifswald went to the "Education-Innovation" team.
For the first time, the SEGEL SETZEN! business plan competition was also organised nationwide. Dr Marco Schade from the start-up agency Stapellauf NORD°OST° emphasises: "It was definitely an experiment to hold the competition nationwide for the first time. We are all the more pleased about the response from the western part of the country. This shows us that we are now well established in the start-up scene in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with our formats. Our thanks also go to the members of the Gründungswerft e. V. association, who actively supported us with their network in promoting and organising our event".
Once again, the 14 business concepts submitted by students and university employees showed a broad spectrum of innovative business ideas. There were submissions in the technology fields of Industry 4.0, health, nutrition, bioeconomy, education, environment and IT. Dr Stefan Seiberling, Head of the Centre for Research Promotion and Transfer at the University of Greifswald (ZFF), also welcomes the implementation as a state competition in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. "The joint business plan competition between the University of Greifswald and the universities in Neubrandenburg and Stralsund has been successfully established. It repeatedly demonstrates the great diversity of innovative technologies, processes and business models that are created in science and thus offer exciting solutions for the key challenges of our time. By opening up the competition to the universities and research institutions in Wismar and Rostock, we want to use this competition as an example of what drives researchers and graduates throughout Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Ideas, courage, creativity and passion from all disciplines."
The location and format of the award ceremony were also new. For the first time, the competition concluded with a "Night of Innovation" at the Pomeranian State Museum. The organisers had come up with a varied programme with music, lectures and, above all, a start-up fair. No fewer than 17 start-ups from the region took the opportunity to present themselves and their products to around 160 guests.
The submitted concepts were evaluated by a cross-location and interdisciplinary jury of experts. The focus was on the financial, technical and organisational implementation of the business concepts. Sponsor and jury member Andreas Klier from ELUMIJA GmbH commented: "Some of the plans read very well and we are really impressed by some of the business plans. So it's great that we were able to be part of this competition". Prize money totalling €20,000 was provided by ELUMIJA GmbH, Stiftung Sparkasse Vorpommern, Rehaform GmbH, BDO-Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft and the University of Greifwald. The winning teams can now use this prize money to further develop their concepts in a targeted manner.
These are the winners in detail:
1st place: Solentil (University of Greifswald, University of Rostock): The founders Alexej Sonnenfeld, Matti Glatte and Marius Schmidt have developed a concept for extracting valuable proteins from duckweed using vertical farming. Among other things, this is intended to reduce environmentally harmful soya imports. Alexej commented on winning the competition with a "That's just crazy!"
2nd place: Adaept Engineering (University of Rostock): Arne Wall, Fabian Hölzke and Hannes Raddatz are, by their own admission, "the guys with the robots". The software they have developed is a universal translator that allows machines to speak a common language and makes their data universally understandable. "Our product enables medium-sized companies to enhance their products with this resource without having to set up a software development department."
3rd place: EcoBilge (Stralsund University of Applied Sciences): Dr Josephine Schaumburg, Isabel Reichel and Bruno Garcia Porto are developing the first oil separator for inboard motorised ships under 40 metres that uses the principle of gravity separation directly on board. "EcoBilge enables the separation of oil residues from bilge water on board and thus a good environmental conscience".
The Special prize of the University of Greifswald goes to Steffen Jeran, Arne Seelisch and Daniel Dickhoff for their Education-Innovation project. "We want to help modernise the education system in Germany and provide evidence-based support to educational institutions in their development," the team says about the project. "To this end, we are providing an app that gives educational institutions customised recommendations for their development based on scientific findings and data as well as practical examples that work."
Congratulations to all the winners!
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