Finance Summit 2025: These start-ups pitch at the BW Startup Award

The BW Startup Award, which is presented as part of the Finance Summit and is endowed with €10,000 in prize money, was launched by the Finance Accelerator of the Boerse Stuttgart Group and is sponsored by RSM Ebner Stolz.

The most innovative start-ups from Baden-Württemberg competed for a place on the big stage back in May and June. A jury of experts selected the five most promising start-ups, who will now be able to present their business model on stage for five minutes on September 18 and then answer questions from the jury. All start-ups will also be given an Expo stand to present themselves on site.

The audience can therefore look forward to exciting pitches, innovative business models and new technologies.

The start-ups at the BW Startup Award

The following five start-ups from the fields of MedTech, CareTech, Fashion & AI, Manufacturing Industry and Artificial Intelligence are taking part:

Fara.ai - Redefining Fashion Insights

fara.ai from Stuttgart operates at the interface of fashion, technology and retail. At the heart of the business model is the development and application of AI-supported analyses that collect and evaluate digital data streams from the internet as well as information from local retail stores and translate them into specific recommendations for action. The aim is to provide retailers and brands with a previously unseen technology that identifies developments at an early stage, maps customer demand more precisely and thus makes fashion more efficient and closer to the market.

Fara.ai thus addresses a fundamental problem in the fashion sector: product ranges are often not optimally aligned with actual demand and are constantly changing. This often leads to overstocking, discount battles and an unnecessary waste of resources. With its approach, the start-up creates automatable insights that help retailers to adjust their merchandise planning in real time, minimize risks and increase profitability at the same time.

The team is currently working with its first pilot customers in Germany and validating its model in practical use. The AI systems are in a continuous training and optimization phase in order to constantly improve the accuracy of the predictions. At the same time, the start-up is building a network of fashion retailers and brand partners who recognize the value of data-driven decisions in the product range and are actively helping to shape the solution.

Fara.ai wants to show that innovation from Germany can set global standards - both in terms of technological excellence and in terms of broad-based responsibility in the use of artificial intelligence.

The aim is to be established as THE partner for AI in the fashion segment in Europe in 3-5 years and to provide retailers and brands with a technology that not only optimizes their product ranges, but also makes the entire value chain in the fashion sector sustainable and efficient.

PRELIQX

PRELIQX develops innovative in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) based on liquid biopsies that enable early, accurate and patient-friendly diagnosis of organ diseases and oncology. Our focus is on the kidneys and pancreas, two areas with high clinical relevance and significant unmet medical need.

The first product, Nephronin®, is a urine test for the early detection of kidney damage such as acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic kidney disease (CKD) or transplant dysfunction. In contrast to standard markers such as creatinine or eGFR, which only indicate damage in the late stages, Nephronin® detects early molecular changes. This enables physicians to intervene at an early stage, improves treatment outcomes for patients and reduces expensive follow-up treatments such as dialysis or transplantation. The test is fully compatible with standard qPCR platforms and can be used in automated routine laboratories, facilitating its scalability and integration into existing structures.

mine&make GmbH - unlocking your new markets

mine&make GmbH is a technology company specializing in business development for the supplier industry. In typical projects lasting around five weeks, mine&make opens up new sales markets for existing products and competencies or develops new product concepts for companies. The revolutionary business development method supported by a proprietary AI and the data-based tools developed in-house open up the same business development opportunities for small and medium-sized companies as for large corporations - up to 35% faster and with high cost efficiency. This strengthens internal resources, enables efficient product and market diversification and promotes continuous growth.

Since its foundation, the company has been able to use its AI technology in over 20 specific applications - with very high customer satisfaction across the board. Running costs are covered by stable sales, which confirms the economic viability of the business model. At the same time, the team is growing continuously and is working on further expanding its market presence and tapping into new customer groups.

The next milestone is a SaaS solution for continuous business development.

The future scenario: the customer subscribes to the mine&make app and receives access to a personalized portal. There they can enter either the data sheet for a product or a description of their technical expertise. On this basis, the platform generates concrete, actionable business development insights. These can be analyzed in interactive dashboards and integrated directly into existing processes.

Validaitor

Validaitor is the all-in-one platform for trustworthy AI.

It combines AI testing, governance, risk management and compliance automation in a single environment. With Validaitor, organizations can operationalize principles of trustworthy AI and ensure compliance with AI regulations and standards such as the EU AI Act and ISO 42001. Validaitor is a spin-off of KIT and is supported by BMFTR and investors such as Bitdefender, EnBW and MBG.

HeyCarla

Germany's care system is currently facing a crucial test - the 5.7 million people in need of care are already not receiving adequate care. And this number will continue to rise - by a further 2.4 million by 2050. This is where professional everyday help and care services are supposed to provide support, but these services are suffocating in analog chaos. They spend their time transporting documents and manually invoicing using Excel lists. This slows down the helpers, harms those in need of care and costs time and money. People don't have this time.

HeyCarla wants to change that. Its SaaS platform is the all-in-one solution for everyday help and care services. The start-up automates the entire service workflow: smart scheduling, mobile app for employees, digital signatures and invoicing at the touch of a button. The result is radically simple: less administration, fewer errors, faster scalability and maximum focus on people.

Since its launch 11 months ago, the company has grown to EUR 250,000 ARR and already has more than 50 enthusiastic customers, including two of the largest services in Germany.

Customers have already used HeyCarla for over 1,600 employees, 22,000 clients, 75,000 organized appointments and more than 200,000 hours worked.

The goal: to set the standard in a growing, socially relevant niche with strong partners, become the market leader in Germany by the end of 2026 and then drive expansion in the DACH region.