At the breakthrough 2018 award The Munich-based startup Foodpunk took first place, beating out 106 competitors. A quasi-Munich native, Shelfd, took third place. The winners were honored with media services worth €500,000 and cash prizes totaling €18,000, as well as 350,000 Edgar Cards.
The startup took first place FoodpunkThe Munich-based company creates digital, individual nutrition plans, making nutritional advice suitable for everyday use and uncomplicated. Marina Lommel, herself a nutritionist and founder of the company, says:
“For our startup, the prize, which includes 10,000 euros for the company’s coffers, is a great opportunity to pursue our mission even more intensively in 2018:
We want to start a nutritional revolution and make healthy eating the new 'normal' diet."
The founder was overwhelmed by the surprising success and hopes to set a good example and “perhaps to motivate more young women to take the step into self-employment.”
Shelfd is looking forward to the first advertising campaign
Second place went to the Cologne bread manufacturer ‘Thank you please'. And the third on the winner's podium was the startup Shelfd. The startup is actually from Berlin, but it is for the next six months as a participant of the fourth batch of the Media Lab Bayern located in Munich.
The streaming startup sees itself as a curator for the best feature films, documentaries, and series from German media libraries. For the founders, the award comes at the right moment, David Streit:
"Thanks to the breakthrough award, we can advertise Shelfd for the first time. This will help us expand our community of over 1,000 users, for whom we already provide personalized library tips in the feed."
The founders are currently developing their own recommendation algorithm for streaming tips.
Award as a platform for networking
The breakthrough 2018 award organizer, Matthias Scheffer, Business Development Manager at Weka Media Publishing, is satisfied:
“This year we were once again able to be inspired by exciting and forward-looking business ideas,”
He adds:
“The breakthrough award offers an excellent platform for networking between founders and industry.”
For the second year in a row, the media publisher is hosting the competition, in which founders from a wide range of categories compete against each other with their products and services. This time, 109 startups competed in nine categories, including Apps and Mobile Services, Communications and Publishing, Food, and Healthcare.
Audience and jury chose the winners
From November to December 2017, 85,000 users selected their favorites via online voting. 27 startups advanced to the next round, from which a high-profile jury selected a winner from each group in January. From these nine finalists, the top three emerged as the winners of the competition.
This year’s jury of the breakthrough 2018 awards consisted of experts from science as well as investors, founders and CEOs such as Dennis von Ferenczy (among others). IDnow-Founder and Investor), Arno Held (Director Business Development – AM Ventures) and Christian Lindener (CEO – Wayra).
