“Being part of the corporate partners in the Corporate Area is a wonderful opportunity every year to exchange ideas with other partners, get to know new start-ups, and keep your finger on the pulse of the start-up scene,” says Sandra Speer, head of the Transfer Center enaCom.
In their keynote speeches, founders and investors Diana zur Löwen, Marc Ebinger, and Janna Ensthaler (also a jury member on Höhle der Löwen) described their paths to founding their companies and motivated the audience to achieve great things. With exciting pitches and at the FoundersFight.Club, founding teams had the chance to win great prizes of up to €2,000. Among others, the University of Bonn start-up Identeco pitched for the focus area of cyber security. The AI and start-up panel inspired new ideas regarding Bonn as a start-up location and opportunities for AI innovations for start-ups. Forward-looking ideas came from panelists Dr. Alexander Opitz (AI Village), Dr. Christian Temath (KI.NRW, Fraunhofer IAIS), and Nesrin Backir (co-founder of Bot World), as well as Sebastian Schuster (district administrator of the Rhein-Sieg district), Dr. Johannes Velling (MWIKE), Victoria Appelbe (Bonn Economic Development Agency), Dr. Hubertus Hille (Bonn/Rhein-Sieg Chamber of Industry and Commerce), and Romy Schnelle (HTGF).
At the end of an impressive day, participants were able to round off the evening with the bands StadtRand and Räuber, either in deck chairs or on the dance floor. Startup Open Air is organized regularly by DIGITALHUB.DE and connects the startup and investor scene in Bonn and the surrounding region. The University of Bonn is a long-standing partner of the event.