Start-up from the University of Stuttgart successful at the Stuttgart Region University Prize

The Stuttgart Region University Prize was awarded last Friday evening at Stuttgart City Hall. The prize is awarded to the most innovative university start-up in the Stuttgart Region and is sponsored by Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH (WRS).

In second place, with prize money of €2,000, was enerlace - a start-up team consisting of graduates from the University of Stuttgart and the Stuttgart Media University (HdM), which is currently receiving the “Junge-Innovatoren-Förderung” (Young Innovators Grant) from the University of Stuttgart. With its web application, enerlace automates the monitoring of wind lidar data, saves time and helps with the scaling of wind farm development projects.

The main prize of €3,000 went to PVision, a start-up that is supported by the HdM Startup Center and is currently receiving an EXIST start-up grant. PVision is working on a software solution for the automated analysis of photovoltaic systems. The data collected when flying over the systems with drones is evaluated using an AI-based computer vision system and provided to the system's maintenance company in real time. PVision originally came from the HdM, but was then able to benefit from the University of Stuttgart's start-up network via the Startup Campus 0711.

The HdM was also awarded the main prize for its commitment to supporting start-ups and received prize money of €1,000. “Working with a start-up gives students the opportunity to experience real-life challenges and develop innovative solutions. It's a win-win situation: the learning process is enriched immensely and the start-up can benefit from the collaboration of many committed students,” said Dr. Susanne Stingel, Professor of Information Systems and Digital Media and mentor to the winning team.

Further prizes went to Evergrow Elements (3rd place, €500, University of Applied Sciences), Bloom (4th place, HdM) and CropShare (wildcard for the ASAP BW final, University of Hohenheim/HdM).

Prof. Dr. Nils Högsdal, Vice-Rector for Innovation at the HdM, emphasized the importance of cooperation between all universities in the start-up sector: “The teams with graduates from different universities in the Stuttgart region show that we are getting closer to our goal of breaking down the boundaries between disciplines and universities in the area of start-up support. Because only together and with interdisciplinary teams can we get innovations off the ground.”

A total of 17 start-ups from universities in the Stuttgart region took part in the competition.

About the prize

The University Prize is sponsored by Wirtschaftsförderung der Region Stuttgart GmbH and was launched in 2022 together with NXTGN. It is organized by Startup Campus 0711, the start-up association of Stuttgart's universities. The partner and host of the award ceremony is the Economic Development Agency of the City of Stuttgart. Start-ups that have not yet been founded are eligible to apply. The founding team must include at least one student or graduate (maximum 5 years after graduation) from one of the universities in the campus region.