Hamburg Founder Award presented

The start-ups Ankerkraut and Beagle Systems have won prizes, while the founder of the Cartoflex Group was honored for his life's work.

The winners of the Hamburg Founder Award have been announced: the start-ups Beagle Systems, Ankerkraut and the entrepreneur Karl-Heinz Hebrok have been honored in the start-up, up-and-comer and lifetime achievement categories. The award was initiated by Hamburger Sparkasse and the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper and presented in the Fischauktionshalle.

Drone developer Beagle Systems won in the start-up category. If they had taken a different path when founding their company, they would never have received the prize from Hamburg: This is because the founders first considered setting up their company in Shanghai, where two of them met. In the end, Oliver Lichtenstein, Jerry Tang and Mitja Wittersheim opted for Hamburg and developed their first prototype in a stable in Quickborn. Beagle Systems develops long-range drones that can be used to inspect infrastructure or for medical transportation, for example. The start-up has received permission from four federal states to fly the drones, which are controlled from the Hamburg office, where the ten-strong team is based.

Ankerkraut became known throughout Germany through its participation in the show Die Höhle der Löwen. Frank Thelen invested and Ankerkraut spices found their way into German grocery stores. Last fall, the founding couple Anne and Stefan Lemcke sold 20 percent of their shares to the investor EMZ for a double-digit million sum. The team of over 170 employees works at four locations in and around Hamburg. Ankerkraut won the Hamburg Founder Award in the Up-and-Coming category.

The last category of the Hamburg Founder Award did not go to a company, but to Karl-Heinz Hebrok for his life's work. He founded the Cartoflex group of companies, which operates at three locations in Lüneburg, Bad Oldesloe and Hamburg with five companies in the packaging sector. Today, Cartoflex supplies over 1,200 customers and 200 employees work for the group.