
Review: The Spark 2022
This year, with the theme “Medical Life Tech”, we honored startups that are committed to transforming the healthcare & medical industry for a better life.
In addition, the Female Founder Award honored female founders who are digital trailblazers encouraging more women to take the plunge into startups.
The Spark Inspiration in Livestream
To kick off The Spark 2022, we discussed the challenges facing the healthcare & medical industry.
Watch the recording of the livestream here and get inspired by the answers of our experts and founders.
Award Ceremony
On 29.09.2022, ten digital pioneer companies competed as finalists in Berlin and presented themselves to over 200 invited guests from politics, business and science.


















© Marc-Steffen Unger
FINALISTs & Winners
Cellbricks
The company was founded by Dr. Lutz Kloke based on his doctoral thesis. With the developed innovative process Cellbricks brought 3D bioprinting to the next level. In the past years, the platform was further developed, and mini-organs & disease models were sold to the pharmaceutical industry & research institutions. With recent breakthroughs and additional team capacity, the company is now bringing technology and products to the clinic.
1ST PLACE

Lindera
Lindera specializes in AI-based 3D motion analysis for digital health, care and fitness apps. By combining medical knowledge and AI, the team has been able to determine precise gait parameters using a simple smartphone camera. There are many use cases for the medical device manufacturer, but fall prevention in old age is currently the most important.
2ND PLACE

Caresyntax
Caresyntax is the leading provider of data-driven surgical solutions that use AI to make surgery smarter and safer to improve patient outcomes. Caresyntax’s software is used in more than 2,800 operating rooms worldwide, helping surgical teams perform more than three million procedures per year.
3RD PLACE

Ada Health
Ada’s AI was developed by physicians to help millions of people understand their symptoms, get the right treatment, and proactively manage their health.
Our deep medical knowledge and advanced probabilistic reasoning engine help users, clinicians, health systems, payers, and governments around the world improve outcomes and efficiency of care.

Avi Medical
Avi Medical is a family physician and software company. Our approach to care integrates cutting-edge digital tools to provide the best possible medical care for our patients. We operate patient-centered, technology-enabled medical practices that provide an unprecedented convenient, personalized and end-to-end digital patient experience.

breathe ilo
breathe ilo, the cycle health platform, helps women live a cycle-appropriate lifestyle. At its heart is the world’s first cycle tracker, which determines fertile days by the CO2 content of the air breathed. The intelligent software-hardware combination allows users to determine their cycle phases regardless of what their focus is: getting pregnant, improving performance in sports, alleviating PMS symptoms, or eating healthier. breathe ilo puts every woman back in control of her body.

inveox
inveox digitizes and automates sample receipt in histopathology, connecting medical practices and pathology labs to increase the safety and reliability of cancer diagnoses and unlock the potential for Big Data and artificial intelligence-based personalized diagnostics.keleya
We are the leading platform for (expecting) moms. We help in three ways: We run the #1 midwifery platform “”ammely.de””. There you can find available midwives for on-site care as well as short-term midwife video consultations in just a few clicks. With the keleya app, we offer reliable, digital companionship and support. Reimbursed by over 30% of all health insurance companies in Germany.

keleya
We are the leading platform for (expecting) moms. We help in three ways: We run the #1 midwife platform “ammely.de”. There you can find available midwives for on-site care as well as short-term midwife video consultations in just a few clicks. With the keleya app, we offer reliable, digital companionship and support. Reimbursed by over 30% of all health insurance companies in Germany.

Recare
Recare Deutschland GmbH operates one of the leading platforms for the digital coordination of care capacities in the context of hospital discharge management and now connects more than 680 acute and rehabilitation clinics with over 16,000 downstream service providers as well as a whole range of statutory health insurers in Germany alone.

Thryve
Thryve provides software that makes data from smartphones, wearables and connected medical devices easy to use for more than 80 healthcare customers. Leading insurers, digital therapy providers and research institutions such as the RKI are already using Thryve to improve digital prevention, diagnosis and care.

FEMALE FOUNDER
FINALIST

Hanna Asmussen
Localyze supports companies with all challenges related to Global Mobility. This includes, among other things, the application for visas, work and residence permits. HR departments have an overview of every step within the process and are informed of any changes or updates.
Localyze’s mission is to create a world without borders to give everyone equal opportunities and make society more diverse.
FINALIST

Sophie Chung
Qunomedical advocates for more equitable healthcare. We help find the right doctor faster, better and safer.
No healthcare system is perfect. But what if we could take the best of each healthcare system, combine it on one platform, and make it available to all patients around the world? Qunomedical is a digital health platform that helps patients find the right doctor worldwide while helping hospitals digitize their patient journey.
FINALIST

Dalia Das
With neue fische, we activate the potential of lateral entrants and also explicitly focus on women as the key to combating the shortage of skilled workers in IT.
Since 2018, the innovative education company has been training career changers from all disciplines, dropouts and especially women to become in-demand developers and data / cloud specialists. More than 1,200 graduates have already joined and advanced at well-known companies throughout Germany.
JURY
For The Spark 2022 and the Female Founder Award 2022, we have once again assembled a top-class jury, which selected the winners with their expertise. The jury meeting took place on 12 September.

Fabian billing
Head of McKinsey Germany

Sebastian Matthes
Editor-in-chief Handelsblatt

Dr. Ann-Kristin Achleitner
Scientific Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS), Munich University of Technology

Prof. Dr. Veronika Grimm
Economist, Professor of Economics and Chair of Economics, in particular Economic Theory at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of the Scientific Management of the Energy Campus Nuremberg (EnCN), Director of the Laboratory for Experimental Research Nuremberg (LERN)

Thomas Grübler
The Spark 2021 Start-up Winner, CEO & Co-founder OroraTech

Kai Hankeln
CEO Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KG aA

Katharina Jünger
The Spark 2021 Female Founder, Co-Founder TeleClinic

Barbara Kux
Member of the Supervisory Board and member of the Nomination Committee at Henkel AG & Co. KGaA,
Member of the International Advisory Board at Adobe Inc.

Dr. Sierk Pötting
COO BioNTech

Peer Schatz
Managing Director PS Capital, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Centogene N.V., Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Resolve Biosciences GmbH and Member of the Supervisory Board of Siemens Healthineers AG

PROF. DR. MED. SYLVIA THUN
University Professor for Digital Medicine and Interoperability
Charité – University Medicine Berlin
Director Core Facility Digital Medicine and Interoperability
Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH)

Betül Susamis Unaran
Chief Strategy and Digital Officer, Executive Board Member Zur Rose Group, Member of the Supervisory Boards of Ypsomed, dss+ and Brain+
Nomination committee
In the nomination phase 2022, external topic experts, the Handelsblatt editorial team and a representative of McKinsey evaluated the applications. Taking into account the specific The Spark evaluation criteria, the finalists of The Spark Award were determined from all applications by the nomination committee.
The experts for the 2022 nominations were:

Prof. Dr. Michael Dowling
Chair of Innovation and Technology Management University of Regensburg and Chairman of the Münchner Kreis

Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior Editor Handelsblatt

Prof. Dr. habil. Alois Knoll
Prof. Dr. habil. Alois Knoll Professor TU Munich, Chair of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Real-Time Systems

Katharina Kreitz
Vectoflow

Stefan Biesdorf
Partner McKinsey & Company

Dr. Stephan Rohr
Founder & Co-CEO TWAICE