Student team from Sasbach awarded High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) High-Tech Prize at JUGEND GRÜNDET 2020 nationwide final

June 22, 2020

• Over 4,000 participants involved in 2019/20 competition
• Student team from Heimschule Lender school in Sasbach receives award

The aim: to make it easier for companies in the logistics sector to load their vehicles, ensuring that almost every vehicle is fully loaded for transport. It was with this vision in mind that Benjamin Haas, Lucas Wiedemer, Mika Schmid, Jeremias Decker and Lucas Herrmann from Heimschule Lender school came up with a business plan for the JUGEND GRÜNDET (“young founders”) competition. On Friday, they were presented with the High-Tech Gründerfonds High-Tech prize at the JUGEND GRÜNDET 2020 nationwide final. A total of 4,117 participants were involved in the 2019/20 competition, with 783 business ideas being submitted. The nationwide final was held online for the first time in the competition’s 17-year history on 18 and 19 June 2020 as part of a future founders exhibition.

Under the team name “spaceLoad”, the team of students developed their business idea for a logistics software program dedicated to the intelligent loading of large goods vehicles. Their idea involves parcels being optically recorded via sensors, with calculations then made as to how the vehicle can be ideally loaded, and the information displayed on monitors. Throughout the competition the team was guided by Wolfram Ehmann, a teacher at Lenderschule school who has supervised successful student teams on a number of occasions in the past for the JUGEND GRÜNDET competition.

spaceLoad would help to solve a significant and increasing problem in terms of delivery space, and would so within a market that is posting strong growth. The number of deliveries is steadily increasing across all sectors and there is a huge need for sustainable solutions. Even though major parcel service providers have already developed their own solutions for this problem, spaceLoad’s software and hardware products could help other companies to offer efficient and sustainable delivery services.

Principal Lucille Bonnet and Senior Investment Manager Axel Nitsch from HTGF

This can be of huge benefit to small companies, particularly during the coronavirus crisis.

Principal Lucille Bonnet and Senior Investment Manager Axel Nitsch from HTGF

The team’s prize is a workshop on the subject of how to come up with a business plan and found your own company. It will be hosted by Lucille Bonnet and Axel Nitsch at the school of the winning team, with all the team’s classmates able to take part. Both Bonnet and Nitsch are already looking forward to the workshop.

As part of the competition, around 4,000 students and apprentices slipped into the role of start-up founders for one year, developing innovative business ideas and coming up with business plans. In the second half of the school year, they experienced the highs and lows of the economy through their virtual companies, as they tried to achieve long-term success for their companies by taking strategic decisions.

We witnessed all kinds of ideas. And all these business ideas were united by a desire to help shape our future with all the possibilities we are presented with, and the aspiration that we as a society might leave behind a world that is worth living in.

Project head Franziska Metzbaur

This feeling that we can really change something, that we can influence the way the world turns – I really hope this is something you’ll always believe in. Because it really is the case! You can help to shape the world and our future. You just have to do it – give it a go! And so I ask you to seize the opportunities that are given to you and think about what you want your future to look like. Just like you have done in taking part in this competition. And then just do it!

Project head Franziska Metzbaur

Andreas Haffner, Member of the Executive Board for Human Resources and Social Affairs at Porsche AG, paid tribute to all those teams who had not finished in the top three during his welcome address. “You’ve all gained valuable experience just by taking part.” Haffner praised the creativity and determination of the finalists who had prevailed against thousands of other participants.

The nationwide final marks the highlight and conclusion of the competition. Team KomPot GmbH from Canisius-Kolleg Berlin was awarded first place for the competition’s main prize by the JUGEND GRÜNDET panel of judges.

Alongside the Berlin-based team, student teams from the German states of Hesse (Bebra, Geisenheim), Baden-Württemberg (Achern, Konstanz, Bruchsal), North Rhine-Westphalia (Meschede), Bavaria (Erding) and Schleswig-Holstein (Güby) qualified for the nationwide final. You can check out the finalists and their business ideas as well as a recording of the award ceremony on the JUGEND GRÜNDET website: www.jugend-gruendet.de/. The recording also features a video presentation by Karim Mustaghni, Director at the Kairos Society, on how creativity is the key to the future, brief insights into the project work of those undertaking an apprenticeship at Porsche, and a discussion involving Andreas Haffner, Member of the Executive Board for Human Resources and Social Affairs at Porsche AG, Dr. Danyal Bayaz, member of the Bundestag and start-up representative for The German Green party, and Daniel Jung, a mathematical YouTube star, on the subject of industry 4.0, digital learning and educational equality.

Sponsors and patrons
Launched in 2003, JUGEND GRÜNDET is promoted by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and is on the list of school competitions that are recommended by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK).

A host of renowned patrons offer their support in promoting the competition as well as with the prizes and the events themselves. The competition’s main sponsor is Porsche. The Steinbeis Innovation Center (SIZ) in Pforzheim is responsible for the conception and implementation of the competition.

If you have any questions, please contact:
Birgit Metzbaur | JUGEND GRÜNDET at SIZ, Blücherstr. 32, 75177 Pforzheim
tel: 07231-42446-27, mobile 0151-14826489, metzbaur@szue.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is a seed investor that finances high-potential, tech-driven start-ups. With around EUR 900 million in total investment volume across three funds and an international network of partners, HTGF has already helped forge almost 600 start-ups since 2005. Driven by their expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion, its team of experienced investment managers and startup experts help guide the development of young companies. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital business models, industrial technology, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. To date, external investors have injected over EUR 2.5 billion into the HTGF portfolio via more than 1,600 follow-on financing rounds. HTGF has also successfully sold interests in more than 100 companies.

Investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, KfW Capital, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and 32 companies. Our Fund Investors

Contact
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Stefanie Grüter, Head of Marketing & Communications
T.: +49 228 82300 188
s.grueter@htgf.de