Jul 15 2016
STARTUP AUTOBAHN Launch Event & Selection Day
July 14th was a big day for STARTUP AUTOBAHN! The STARTUP AUTOBAHN Launch Event and Selection Day for Program 1 took place in Fellbach near Stuttgart at the event venue GOLDBERGWERK. Around 350 attendees – startups, corporations, investors, universities, government representatives, press and the STARTUP AUTOBAHN partners (Plug and Play Tech Center, Daimler AG, University of Stuttgart, and Arena2036 e.V.) – were excited to see the keynotes and the startup presentations.
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, gave the opening speech stating that Stuttgart as the cradle of the automobile will keep on shaping the future of mobility. STARTUP AUTOBAHN will be part of this vision empowering the innovative force of the Stuttgart Region by bringing local and international startups in the mobility space up to speed.
Through their keynotes, Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber, Member of the Board of Management Daimler AG, Group Research & MBC Development, and Prof. Dr. Ressel, Rector of the University of Stuttgart, gave insights in the perpectives from industry and academie when working with startups.
Saeed Amidi, CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center from Silicon Valley, explained why Silicon Valley and Stuttgart are a perfect fit for the STARTUP AUTOBAHN activities. Amongst others, his vision for Stuttgart is for 1,000 of the 4,000 yearly graduates of the University of Stuttgart to found a startup or to work for a startup.
After Saeed’s speech, Hendrik Brandis, Partner and Cofounder of Early Bird Venture Capital, elaborated the the role of Venture Capital and accelerators in an era of democratized innovation. Here one of his quotes: „Today we can scale businesses at a speed and pace that was not possible before.“
Eyal Peso, CEO and founder of the Tel-Aviv based startups Gauzy, gave insights on how startups can collaborate with Mercedes-Benz.
Candace Widdoes, COO of Plug and Play Tech Center, provided an overview of Plug and Play’s activities and the involvement of corporations. Candace’s keynote was followed by a Q&A about the STARTUP AUTOBAHN program with Candace Widdoes, Anke Kleinschmit, Vice President Group Research and Sustainability Daimler AG, Susanne Hahn, Director Business Innovation Daimler AG, and the moderator Ole Tillmann.
The jury members took their seats in the first row and the pitches startet!
- First on stage was Tomer Shani from Noveto presenting “Sowlo”, a breakthrough technology designed to deliver personal sound directly to the users’ ears.
- Next was Stephan Odörfer from 4tiitoo, whose goal is to revolutionize the way users interact with commputers and further devices.
- Jost Dörken from n-Join introduced the audience to the 4th industrial revolution making factories even smarter.
- Kai Saksela and Jonas Nyberg from Noiseless Accoustics explained how they make sound visible using their acoustic camera.
- Joachim Zettler from AP works – the experts for 3D printing of metals.
- Veselin Brankovic and Veljko Mihajlovic from Norasens impress with their sophisticated radar sensors.
- Erkki Soininen from Canatu – ready to revolutionize touch screens with their transparent conductive films and touch sensors.
- Patrick S. Hilsbos presenting neuromore closing the gap between man and machine to elevate the standards of safety and convenience.
- On stage: Ian Podkamien from vayyar talking about their impressive 3D sensor technology.
- MotionTag – presented by Stephan Leppler – helps people to stay active and to monitor their envorinmental impact when travelling.
- Carlos Alberto Mira from TruckPad, an online mobile marketplace where truckers come to get their next truckload using their smartphones.
- Ofer Ben-Noon from Argus, the world’s largest, independent automotive cyber security company.
- Raphael Gindrat introduced BestMile, a fleet management platform designed to operate and optimize any fleet of autonomous vehicles.
- blickshift provides solutions and products for the analysis of car drivers’ behavior, especially for the analysis of eye movements. CEO and founder Michael Raschke on stage!
- Mikhail Maiorov presenting for Roadgazer, an intelligent assistant app integrated with a cell phone or/and car infotainment system providing travelers with a voice controlled and adaptive trip planning.
- Michael Stumpe from Carjump enabling its users to search for, reserve and book carsharing vehicles from a multitude of providers via one simple app.
- On stage Kemal Levi from Relimentrics – developing hardware-agnostic image correlation software to evaluate and monitor mechanical reliability of materials.
- Klemens Muthmann introduced Cyface, measuring road surface quality via crowd sourcing, using low budget measuring hardware, such as smartphones or RaspberryPi computers.
- Discovering the future of smart mobile ticketing: Ofer Sinai with HopOn.
- André Azevedo presented HealthyRoad, developing facial biometric tech for automotive sector.
- Tobias Weiper and Sven Lackinger introduced the evopark app which allows to easily find off-street parking locations and check the real-time availability.
- Last presenter on stage: Ben Volkow from otonomo offering a car data exchange and marketplace that enables car OEM’s to monetize car data in a safe, controlled and secured manner.
A big thank you to all startups for the exceptional pitches and demo tables! Program 1 will start on September 12th. Stay tuned!
Interested to join as a startup?
We are already accepting applications for Program 2 starting in March 2017. Interested startups can apply here.
Interested to join as a corporate partner?
Please turn to Sascha Karimpour.