Casida wins Saxony's start-up prize

Casida won almost a third of the votes cast, earning it the title of Start-up of the Year 2021 in Saxony. The Werdau-based company is dedicated to manufacturing products based on medicinal plants.

Votes were cast online until Sunday, and now the winner of "Sachsen gründet - Start-up 2021" has been announced: pharmacist Alexander Helm has won the €60,000 prize with his company Casida. Of the 1,549 votes cast, almost a third (461) went to the Werdau-based company, which manufactures dietary supplements, cosmetics and health products based on medicinal plants.

The pharmacist runs the company, which was founded in 2016, together with his mother Ute Helm, who holds a ten percent stake. For a long time, they only made the products for their pharmacy and local customers, but Helm wanted to bring his natural products to a wider audience and founded the Casida brand. Today, the start-up sells 70 products and generated a turnover of 3.4 million euros in 2020. There are ten employees.

In total, founders of 32 start-ups from Saxony applied for the award and the jury shortlisted five start-ups, which were then voted on online. The prize is part of the "Entrepreneur of the Year" competition in Saxony and is being awarded for the fifth time. The final actually takes place in front of an audience, but this year, as in 2020, there will only be the award ceremony on July 9 at Volkswagen's Transparent Factory in Dresden.