For 22 years, Science4Life, an initiative of the Hessian state government and the healthcare company Sanofi, has been supporting founders in the life sciences, chemicals, and energy sectors. Once a year, the initiative hosts the largest business plan competition in Germany for precisely these industries. With success, Science4Life received a record number of 86 business plans in this year's competition.
Innovative biotechnology in the weightless environment of the ISS space station, rapid and targeted development of new vaccines based on the modular principle, and practical solutions for the shared use of renewable energies within residential and settlement areas convinced the expert jury and show what the future will look like in the fields of life sciences, chemistry, and energy.
Four wins: Deoxy, Dermagnostix, Cellunite and Pionierkraft
Four teams from Munich were also among the award-winning startups: Deoxy, Dermagnostix, Cellunite and Pioneer Power.
Deoxy, which is working on a fully automated system for the quantitative analysis of gene expression of single cells in tissue or blood samples, took third place in the Science4Life Venture Cup, endowed with 5,000 euros. Cellunite and Dermagnostix also landed among the top 10 startups in this field and each received prize money of 1,000 euros. Dermagnostix is developing a molecular diagnostic point-of-care device for the safe and immediate diagnosis of skin diseases, and Cellunite is developing a personalized cell therapy.
At the Science4Life Energy Cup, Pioneering power A Munich-based startup even took first place. A lucrative spot, endowed with €10,000, was awarded. Pionierkraft has developed a solution that enables peer-to-peer electricity trading of self-generated energy between citizens and/or businesses.
Since the business plan competition was founded in 1998, more than 7,000 people have participated, and over 2,000 business ideas have been submitted and evaluated. The startup initiative consists of a network of industry experts from more than 200 companies who share their expertise and experience with the competition participants. Over 1,000 companies have been successfully founded.
