The Female Founders SUMMIT took place for the fourth time at Wuppertal University of Applied Sciences. Organised as part of the Women Entrepreneurs in Science (WES) project, it puts female founders and their start-ups in the spotlight. Visitors were able to network with each other and attend numerous workshops on topics ranging from mindfulness and self-organisation, financing and investment opportunities to responsible action in line with economic success and confident pitching.

Big stage for young female founders

A special highlight of the day was the Pitch Night. It started with a keynote speech by Milena Glimbovski, co-founder of "Ein guter Verlag" and "Original Unverpackt", who gave the participants inspiring insights into the world of female founders. Glimbovski spoke very openly about supposedly taboo topics such as mental health and encouraged female founders to take care of themselves, especially during the start-up phase.

The stage then belonged to the young female founders: Six selected female and mixed start-up teams from NRW universities presented their business ideas and then had to answer critical questions from the high-calibre jury.

While the jury deliberated, Minister Mona Neubaur (Minister for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia), Prof Dr Birgitta Wolff (Rector of the University of Wuppertal), Prof Dr Christine Volkmann (project manager and initiator of WES) and Anne Janser (founder of WorXplorer GmbH) highlighted the challenges and opportunities for female founders in Germany in a panel discussion. They emphasised the need for gender-sensitive start-up advice and support services for female founders.

Minister Mona Neubaur: "Women are still less likely to start a business than men. At the same time, however, they are no less interested in the topic. That is why there is still a need for support for female founders in North Rhine-Westphalia. It is important to me to offer successful women a stage and to make their ideas and business models visible. After all, we need all the strong players and innovative forces to overcome the current challenges. Networking events such as the Female Founders SUMMIT therefore make an important contribution to the expansion of the female founder ecosystem in North Rhine-Westphalia."

The winning teams of the evening:

1st place: Dr.Q

Founders Isabelle Hochberger, Dr Henrik Stromberg and Marian Harling are developing a virtual calculation engineer that combines the finite element method (FEM; a general numerical method used for various physical tasks) with generative AI to provide simple and reliable strength analyses. The team from TU Dortmund can look forward to prize money totalling 3,000 euros, sponsored by GoDaddy Germany.

2nd place: Comuneo

Comuneo digitises and datafies public administrations for sustainable development. The data platform centralises and manages data, enables monitoring and visualisation of indicators and supports evidence-based action planning. The business model is based on flexible SaaS subscriptions (SaaS = Software-as-a-Service).

The founders Silke Sommer, Katharina von Stauffenberg and Guy Malachi from the University of Münster can look forward to prize money totalling EUR 1,500, sponsored by NRW.BANK.

3rd place: Tilly Media Education

With Tilly Media Education, founders Lisa Mütsch, Maja Kawecki and Lars Bounin from the TH Köln are developing tools, workshops and training courses to teach media skills. The TillyBox, an escape game, teaches children and young people media skills in a fun way. The team won several days of coaching and design advice.

All participating teams also received a one-year licence from GoDaddy Germany.

"In addition to the prize money, it is also important for the finalists to get to know the other participants and to network with them. The Founders SUMMIT offers a platform for exchange and mutual support," says Alexandra Anderson, Marketing Director GoDaddy DACH about the event.