THE SPARK

New realities – future of work, future of life

YOUR STARTUP REVOLUTIONIZES THE DIGITAL INTERACTION BETWEEN HUMANS AND / OR MACHINES WITH THE HELP OF NEW REALITIES?

Handelsblatt and McKinsey award top innovators with the Spark – The German Digital Award and bring them together with renowned business leader.

The Spark provides drivers of the digital revolution with the chance to present themselves on the big stage. The perfect award for startups whose ideas have the potential to cause ground-breaking changes within industry. You will not only have the chance to present your ideas to a prominent jury and high-caliber guests but also get in touch with other proponents of the digital revolution.

This year we focus on concepts within the field of new realities, which focus on humans, their work and their daily environment: from virtual and augmented reality to voice and gesture control as well as innovative and virtual training solutions. Business ideas which offer an innovative, scalable concept and have been already successfully tested in a business context.

The application period for this year´s competition is already closed. Just send a short message to [email protected] and we will inform you as soon as next year´s application phase starts.

MEET THE FINALISTS 2019

Between April and June 2019, we looked for the best candidates. We are happy to announce following ten finalists 2019:

BITSTARS

HoloBuilder by bitstars is the fastest and most insightful solution for documenting construction progress and buildings in a secure SaaS cloud environment

BLICKFELD

Blickfeld enables autonomous driving for the mass market through scalable LiDAR sensor technology

BRIGHTER AI

With Deep Natural Anonymization, Brighter AI sets a new standard for public cameras, enabling data privacy and a connected world without contradictions

EYECANDYLAB

eyecandylab is the developer of augmen.tv, a platform that can display interactive augmented reality around videos and TV programs

HOLORIDE

Virtual Reality meets driving in real time – holoride enables a new, highly immersive entertainment experience for passengers

OCULAVIS

oculavis SHARE enables mechanical engineering and construction enterprises, to implement digital business models and innovative processes in their services

RIMASYS

RIMASYS offers lifelike training in trauma and orthopedics- the “flight simulator” for surgeons

UBIMAX

Ubimax is revolutionizing enterprises processes through wearable computing and augmented reality, helping mobile workers to focus on their tasks rather than time-consuming interaction with computers

USERLANE

Userlane provides companies with a navigation system for software, that allows users to understand and operate any software – without any training

YOU MAWO

YOU MAWO is a premium eyewear label, specialized in lightweight, high-quality eyewear with modern designs and the option of 100% customization using 3D Scans

WHAT IS IN IT FOR YOU

As finalist or winner of The Spark – The German Digital Award you will gain many benefits …

… valuable contacts, a competent network and relevant insights.

… a range of influence by presenting your company on stage and via our media.

… an approved distinction to raise your reputation.

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OVERVIEW OF THE APPLICATION PROCESS

application

Please apply for The Spark using our online application form till the 30th of June.

preselection

Applicants will be preselected based on the information given in their application. Only the best applicants will be selected as finalists.

jury session

On September 30th, the finalists will present their business to our high-caliber jury in live-pitches. This will be the basis for the jury’s selection of the winners.

award ceremony

On November 21st, finalists will be presented at the grand award ceremony in Berlin. Then the winners will be revealed.

THE SPARK SUCCESS STORIES

Many of our former The Spark winners and finalists experienced strong growth since their participation at our award.

Latest The Spark success stories at a glance:

KONUX

In 2016, the first year of The Spark, our prominent jury honored the startup KONUX as a winner. In February 2019, KONUX raised further USD 13 million in an extension of its Series B financing round, bringing the total amount raised in its Series B financing round to USD 33 million.

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Octimine

In 2017, the start-up Octimine was honored as a finalist of The Spark – The German Digital Award. In November 2018 the innovative provider of semantic patent search services was acquired by Dennemeyer Group.

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Relayr

In 2016, the startup relayr was also awarded as winner of The Spark. Only two years later, in September 2018, the company, valued at USD 300 million, was acquired by Munich Re.

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NEED MORE INFORMATION?

Handelsblatt Sepcial

In our Special on Handelsblatt Online you can find interesting articles about The Spark – The German Digital Award and this year’s topic „New realities – future of work, future of life“.

The Spark Review

Since 2016 Handelsblatt and McKinsey award The Spark – The German Digital Award. Find out more about the winners, the jury and the finalists of the last years here.

Topic: New realities

You would like to learn more about this years’s topic “New realities – future of work, future of life”. Please find further information and studies from the McKinsey experts here.

PATRONAGE

Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi)

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