OUT OF THE BOX.NRW 2024: North Rhine-Westphalia honours the best digital start-ups

The best digital start-ups from North Rhine-Westphalia have been honoured with the OUT OF THE BOX.NRW state prize.

OUT OF THE BOX.NRW: the 2024 competition

Synctive from Bielefeld is the winner of OOTB.NRW 2024, taking home prize money to the tune of €25,000. Start-ups Voltfang (Aachen) and arttrade (Düsseldorf) followed in second and third place, each receiving a further €15,000 and €10,000 respectively, provided by NRW.BANK. In an exciting final, the top ten entrants presented their innovative products and business models to a large audience of founders, investors and company representatives at the internationally renowned start-up conference Hinterland of Things in Bielefeld.

Overall winner Synctive enables manufacturers of machines and devices to use the Internet of Things to offer data-driven services, from condition-based monitoring to predictive maintenance. Voltfang produces environmentally friendly battery storage systems that store surplus energy and provide a way in which to use electricity intelligently. arttrade GmbH enables private and institutional investors to invest in art with the help of digital securities.

A total of 70 start-ups submitted an application for the competition. The ten finalists made it through several selection rounds and were able to convince a jury of North Rhine-Westphalia's leading venture capitalists and experts from the start-up scene, along with the public, who voted for their favourite online. The jury at the OUT OF THE BOX.NRW 2024 final comprised international investors, a company representative, a female founder, as well as representatives from NRW.BANK and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The audience was also able to cast their vote in the final using an app. The votes of the jury and the audience were weighted 50/50.

The following ten start-ups qualified for the final in Bielefeld:

  • Anymate Me, Cologne: Anymate Me offers a cloud platform for AI-controlled video generation.
  • Arttrade, Düsseldorf: arttrade GmbH enables private and institutional investors to invest in art using digital securities. 
  • Elixion Medical, Düsseldorf: Elixion Medical improves patient care through automated monitoring of catheters and drains with SaaS, AI and IoT technologies.
  • Lenabo, Bornheim: Lenabo develops sustainable and educational smart toys that adapt to the developmental stages of a child.
  • Meal&Heal, Münster: Meal&Heal is an app that identifies intolerances and creates personalised nutritional concepts, accompanied by qualified nutritional advice.
  • Peers, Aachen: Peers offers immediate support for depression, stress and anxiety through professionally led courses focussed on growth through peer-to-peer exchange.
  • Sovity, Dortmund: Sovity offers easy access to data storage with industry-proven software and makes it easy to set up and use data rooms.
  • Synctive, Bielefeld: The Synctive solution enables manufacturers of machines and devices to use the Internet of Things to offer data-driven services, from condition-based monitoring to predictive maintenance.
  • Urban Ray, Köln: Urban Ray is developing a logistics platform that uses aerial robotics and lockers for urban goods transport in order to make logistics sustainable.
  • Voltfang, Aachen: Voltfang produces environmentally friendly battery storage systems that store surplus energy and provide a way in which to use electricity intelligently.
“With a great deal of courage, technological expertise and unconventional thinking, founders in North Rhine-Westphalia are driving the digital and climate-neutral transformation. We are honouring this extraordinary commitment with the OUT OF THE BOX.NRW state prize, putting the spotlight on the tremendous innovative power of the NRW start-up scene. The winners of the OOTB.NRW show how start-ups with pioneering digital and sustainable business models can be successful in North Rhine-Westphalia and beyond.”
Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Mona Neubaur

Review of the 2023 winners:

The winner of the 2023 competition was syte GmbH from Münster, receiving €25,000 in prize money. The start-up offers an AI-supported software solution that identifies the development potential of land and buildings in real time. For example, planners and authorities can find out where new living space can be created by adding storeys (i.e. without further land sealing), in the most resource-efficient way possible and without the need for time-consuming research.

Second place went to the start-up Elona Health GmbH from Düsseldorf, which received €15,000 in prize money. This start-up develops digital tools for psychotherapy, enabling therapists to accompany their patients outside of sessions and provide them with therapeutic content and exercises.

Third place and €10,000 in prize money went to Vytal Global GmbH from Cologne. The start-up operates a digital, deposit-free reusable system for catering businesses with delivery and take-away services. Customers with the Vytal app borrow food and drink containers free of charge by scanning a QR code and can return them to any Vytal partner within 14 days.

About the competition

OUT OF THE BOX.NRW is a competition for young start-ups from North Rhine-Westphalia who are pursuing a digital business model. With prize money totalling €50,000, the OOTB is one of the most generously endowed competitions for start-ups in Germany. It provides them with an opportunity to impress high-calibre investors and generate plenty of new contacts.

This is a prize that opens many doors for its winners. The €50,000 prize money is donated by NRW.BANK and distributed among the various winners as follows:

First prize: €25,000

Second prize: €15,000

Third prize: €10,000

Everything you need to know about the competition

Other start-up competitions in NRW