CHEManager Innovation Pitch, the start-up initiative of CHEManager and CHEManager International, entered its fifth year in January. Last year, supported by our sponsors Biocampus Straubing, Ruhr-IP Patentanwälte and Global Entrepreneurship Centre, we presented a total of 19 start-up companies with their ideas – eleven in the German-language CHEManager edition and eight in CHEManager International. But that was not the end of the 2022 road, as the CHEManager Innovation Pitches of the Year still had to be selected.

In a virtual jury session, a panel of experts selected this week three winners among the 19 start-ups from seven countries. One winner each was determined in the categories "Value to Industry," "Value to Society", and "Value to Sustainability."

In the "Value to Industry" category, AllocNow beat Grandperspective and Lumatix Biotech. All three start-ups are based in Germany.

The winner in the "Value to Society" category was PipePredict with a narrow margin over Everwave. The German startups went head-to-head. Third in this category was 4Gene, also from Germany.

And in the "Value to Sustainability" category, Ferr-Tech from the Netherlands won clearly ahead of its German contenders PipePredict and AllocNow.

The Dutch start-up Ferr-Tech scored well in all categories and with all jury members and received the most votes overall. Its two competitors in the sustainability category also came second and third across all categories, so that the three winners in the categories also took the top three places in the overall rankings.

Even though six of the start-ups mentioned come from Germany, the international founders were also able to convince with their ideas. Their participation was high, as in previous years. This time, start-ups from the USA, Great Britain, Portugal, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands were represented.

The experts praised, above all, the diversity of ideas developed by the 19 start-ups, which have not only industrial but also social relevance. CHEManager again took this diversity into account by offering separate prizes in the three categories "Value to Society," "Value to Industry" and "Value to Sustainability." Nevertheless, the jury's decision was preceded by a lively discussion in which different criteria were weighed up against each other.

The expert jury included: Ann-Kathrin Wagner (Biocampus Straubing), Tanja Bendele (Ruhr-IP Patentanwälte), Holger Bengs (BCNP Consultants), Marie Hurtgen (Global Entrepreneurship Centre) and Jörg Wetterau (Labor für Kommunikation, CHEManager). The jury session was moderated by Michael Reubold and Ralf Kempf (CHEManager).