Casida wins Saxony's founder prize

Casida won almost a third of the votes cast and thus holds the title of Start-up of the Year 2021 in Saxony. The Werdau-based company is dedicated to the manufacture of products based on medicinal plants.

Online voting was open until Sunday, and now the winner of "Sachsen gründet - Start-up 2021" has been determined: pharmacist Alexander Helm wins the €60,000 prize with his company Casida. Of the 1,549 votes cast, 461 - almost a third - went to the Werdau-based company, which produces nutritional 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 produced the products for their pharmacy and local clientele, 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 sales of 3.4 million euros in 2020. There are ten employees.

In total, founders of 32 start-ups from Saxony had applied for the prize, and the jury made a pre-selection of five start-ups, which were voted on online. The prize is part of the "Entrepreneur of the Year" competition in Saxony and is being awarded for the fifth time. Actually, the final 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.