Update November 2020: Pylot has since renamed itself Fernride.
Each year, the special prize is awarded to the Munich-based startup that performed best in the pitch contest at Bits & Pretzels. Sponsored by Munich Startup, the award is intended to highlight the innovative strength of Munich startups and promote young entrepreneurs based there.
"As one of the leading startup hotspots, it is important for Munich to honor the best of the best. Munich's founders repeatedly demonstrate what innovative and smart solutions are possible for the challenges of our time. The "Munich Startup Award" recognizes the work of Pylot, who have faced these challenges and achieved outstanding results."
explains economic advisor Clemens BaumgärtnerThe awards ceremony, which has always taken place at the Oktoberfest, was moved this year to the studio of the Bits & Pretzels from where the Founders Festival broadcast its digital program throughout the week.
The winner of the Munich Startup Award 2020
The startup, founded by Manage and More scholarship recipient Hendrik Kramer, Jean-Michael Georg, and Maximilian Fisser, specializes in teleoperation, i.e., the remote control of vehicles. By using virtual reality to allow human drivers to access autonomous vehicles as backup, Pylot aims to make autonomous mobility safe and scalable.
Pylot, founded in early 2019, became part of Batch #6 of the Xpreneurs incubator, which helped the startup optimize its business model in its early stages. The team received early-stage funding from the Initiative for Industrial Innovators for its first prototype. And the Digital Hub Mobility introduced the founders to industry contacts. In January 2020, Pylot won the de:hub Award as Germany's most promising cross-industry startup, and has now won the Munich Startup Award 2020.
In recent years, other top-class Munich startups have already been honored with this award. In 2016, the smart city startup Cleverciti, In 2017, the online meta search engine Catchys won the race, In 2018 the award went to Inveox and Last year, the IoT startup Hawa Dawa prevailed against the competition.
Pylot’s success at the Munich Startup Award muenchen.de spoke with Clemens Baumgärtner and Hendrik Kramer, co-founder and CEO of Pylot:
