RideBee convinced the jury with their pitch and won the MCEI Seed Award 2019 in an exciting final round. The young startup wins a price money of 10,000 euro which is intended to help the startup grow.
We kicked-off this Startup Lounge season for the spring semester with a special event – the final round of the MCEI Seed Award 2019. The Café L3 was packed with spectators as an excited crowd witnessed the finalist's high-profile pitches. Over 150 startup enthusiasts from all over the Rhein-Neckar area wanted to see the three finalists live. The jury pre-selected our three finalists in the forerun from 14 contestants by evaluating the startup’s pitch deck according to the Seed Award criteria and their professional opinion. Each member casted their opinion individually and the aggregated feedback determined the finalists.
The first pitch of the evening was BeeSonix with Alexander Kowollik. BeeSonix enables the public transport infrastructure to communicate with smartphones. With ultrasonic announcements, stops and vehicles can record and report the location of a passenger to routing and ticketing platforms. Thus, they are able to offer pay-as-you-go systems and unique passenger navigation, allowing a relaxed journey and high flexibility.
Next to present were Sven Butz and Pauline Machtolf of BLAUHERZ. Blauherz is an inclusive fashion label that hand-tailors fashionable clothing that everyone, people with and without disabilities, can identify with. They produce style without borders and contribute to an inclusive society by integrating socially disadvantaged people into their production of inclusive and sustainable products.
Finally, Tobias Reinerth and Fabian Seitz of RideBee pitched to the crowd. They offer a platform, where one can find a carpooling partner or group within their company and share the commute to work. To provide value to those who already carpool, they organize users conveniently in travel groups that know each other personally, encourage regular use through gamification and incentives and provide useful everyday features such as keeping track of payments and live location sharing.
After the crowd has seen all three pitches, the jury cast their feedback via a ballot sheet. During the break, when MCEI counted the votes, Q-Summit presented themselves and also had a nice surprise for the finalists: Every finalist got tickets for the Q-Summit conference and the winners additionally a wildcard for the pitch battle. PitchGuru also had a surprise for the winners gifting a free pitchdeck design and content package to the winners.
In the end, RideBee was voted winner. The second place went to BLAUHERZ followed by BeeSonix in third place. The winner is entitled to the price money of 10,000 euro to advance their business.
To all the 14 contestants this year we want to extend our thanks! The applicants were AIVY, BeeSonix, BLAUHERZ, BucherBags, Effishent, Heyanna, Instahemp, Laptop Lockware, outsmart.ai, Pacific Straws, RamblingContinuum, RideBee, Stylemyle, Talent-Go.
Although only one startup could win the prize money, all applicants are encouraged to use the MCEI support activities to boost their idea. Special thanks go to the jury for their effort and professional judgement of the ideas. Last but not least thanks to the Café L3 for hosting another great event and making the time most enjoyable for our guests.
