The digital world offers endless opportunities for innovative ideas and business models. To encourage this creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, the Rising Digital Award 23 organized an award for up-and-coming startups that create digital benefits. The competition offered participants a platform to advance their ideas, receive valuable coaching from experienced experts and win financial support of 30,000 euros to further develop their projects.
The application phase for the Rising Digital Award 23 ran from January 16 to March 31. Start-ups were able to register via the application portal and decide for themselves what content they would like to convince the jury with. Regardless of whether it was a groundbreaking new product, an innovative service or a revolutionary business idea - the award recognized all aspects of digital transformation.
After the application phase, a jury of experienced digital experts, including Prof. Dr. Sabine Sachweh from IDiAL at Fachhochschule Dortmund, made the preliminary selection. They took a close look at the submissions and selected the most promising ideas. The selected start-ups received an invitation to the Pitch Days, which took place on May 10 and 11 in Dortmund.
The Pitch Days offered the participants the unique opportunity to present their ideas in person to the jury and respond to questions and details. It was an exciting opportunity to receive valuable feedback from industry experts and to convince potential investors and business partners of their own vision.
The Pitch Days were followed by the eagerly awaited Award Ceremony on June 16. This is where the winners of the Rising Digital Awards 2023 were chosen. In addition to Prof. Dr. Sabine Sachweh, the jury consisted of Sebastian Neus (founder and managing director of Conciso GmbH), Christoph Schubert (partner and auditor at Husemann & Partner), Dr. Christian Mielsch (ex-CFO REWE, supervisory board member and investor) and Prof. Dr. Ben Hermann (Professor of Secure Software Engineering at the Technical University of Dortmund), who made the final decision and announced the winners.
The Rising Digital Award 23 was a unique opportunity for up-and-coming start-ups to advance their ideas and enrich the digital world with new benefits. The event promoted innovation, entrepreneurship and the exchange of knowledge and experience.
