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AI Garage Demo Day: The grand finale of the Network Accelerator for early-stage AI teams.

19.02.2022 Daniela Musial-Lemberg News
On January 28, the time had finally come. The grand finale of the AI Garage Network Accelerator took place in a hybrid event in Heidelberg. Over 3 months, 11 early-stage AI teams from all over Baden-Württemberg had worked on turning their idea into scalable business models. The top 6 teams had the opportunity to present themselves to investors. Along the way, the teams were accompanied by startup coaches, mentors and experts from the fields of AI and business. The Network Accelerator is part of the AI Garage, a program of the Baden-Württemberg Foundation.

The Network Accelerator started on Oct. 15, 2021, with the goal of closing the gap between first-class AI research in Baden-Württemberg and the transfer into scalable business models. Selected teams went through a total of 13 modules in the fields of AI and entrepreneurship and were supported by an area-wide network of mentors and startup coaches. Promising teams were thus to be individually supported from Baden-Württemberg. At the same time, the aim was to create the basis for a sustainable AI ecosystem through cooperation with numerous partners. 13 workshops, over 60 hours of individual coaching, 30 hours of AI mentoring and lots of iterations later, the grand finale was upon us.

At the hybrid Demo Day, investors, representatives from politics, startup ecosystems and educational institutions met to see the selected teams pitch. The evening opened with a speech by Ministerial Director Michael Kleiner and Dr. Andreas Weber from the Baden-Württemberg Foundation. After a short review of the program, the stage belonged to the startup teams. 6 teams pitched their business models in five minutes and were then questioned for three minutes by an experienced jury. After the exciting presentations, the final evaluation took place, taking into account both the progress during the Network Accelerator and the jury feedback.

On an evening like this, from the eyes of the KI Garage team, everyone was ultimately a winner. The beginning and end of the program were worlds apart. Each team was able to make numerous new contacts and take the next important step towards success. The first 3 places were crowned:

FAIBRICS came in 3rd place with their AI solution to make production in the textile industry sustainable. Team FAIBRICS received a coaching voucher for 400 €.

Second place went to team mentalport, which is working on the availability of psychological help below the therapy level with the help of AI. Mentalport won a coaching voucher of 600 €.

1st place went to …Synthavo, with its AI-based visual spare parts search for mechanical engineering. Team Synthavo received €1,000 in prize money and at the same time a wildcard for the AI Garage’s continuing program – the AI RISE program.

Now that the first Network Accelerator is over, the KI-Garage team is working hard on the next program. In the upcoming AI RISE program, the team supports AI startups that can already demonstrate initial growth and are ready for further scaling. Here, intensive 1:1 trainings in the areas of sales, funding and operations are combined with meetings of relevant investors and customers.

Interested teams can apply directly here.

Patrick from our network is also available for further questions.

The AI Garage is a program of the Baden-Württemberg Foundation, jointly implemented by partners from Karlsruhe (KIT & KIT Innovation gGmbH), Heidelberg (Heidelberg Technology Park & Heidelberg University), and Mannheim (Mannheim University). With the goal of building a sustainable AI ecosystem in Baden-Württemberg and promoting AI ideas entrepreneurially, the AI Garage aims to bridge the gap between first-class research and subsequent entrepreneurial activity in Baden-Württemberg in the long term. With AI-specific events, the team provides access to exciting future topics. Through funding programs and coaching, teams are supported on their entrepreneurial journey.

More about the AI Garage: www.kigarage.de

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