Twice a year, the start-up competition Gründungswettbewerb – Digitale Innovationen by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection's (BMWK) honors the best ideas of innovative start-ups that are based on digital technologies. The award supports start-ups in the early stages and emphasizes their key role as drivers of innovation in the digital and ecological transformation for climate protection, competitiveness, and prosperity in Germany. Selected by an expert jury from a total of 220 applications, three projects from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin were honored with the renowned prize in this year's winter round of the competition: Congratulations to the founders of TimeTeller® GmbH, Kiso Health and UniWearables!
TimeTeller® GmbH pools research findings on the molecular interactions of the internal biological clock with clock-controlled genes and their influence on diseases. Using an in-vitro diagnostic tool that can measure an individual’s internal clock, the start-up enables customisable chronotherapy for cancer patients. TimeTeller® was initially funded as a project by the “Inventors for Health” (I4H) programme of SPARK-BIH with funds from the Stiftung Charité and later by the Digital Health Accelerator (DHA) of the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH). In March 2023, TimeTeller® GmbH was finally founded by Prof. Dr. Angela Relógio, with the participation of Ascenion GmbH (on behalf of Charité BIH Innovation, the joint technology transfer of Charité and BIH) and Dr. Benjamin Dose. TimeTeller® receives the EUR 32,000 Gründungspreis+ for its particularly outstanding idea.
Kiso Health develops medical apps for smartphones for the treatment of psychosis and schizophrenia. The aim is to give those affected and their relatives more control and quality of life in everyday life. The app by Nele Potrykus, Marco and Luca Anzaldo and PD Dr Dr Kerem Böge is based on cognitive behavioral therapy, provides information and therapeutic exercises to those affected and supports relatives in dealing with family members who are ill.
UniWearables is a provider of cloud patient data systems and IOT hardware and is developing a medical wearable for the continuous recording of vital signs in clinics and care homes. By transmitting real-time data, founders Raphael Lang and Maximilian Blendinger aim to optimize patient monitoring and care.
Kiso Health and UniWearables are supported by Charité and Profound Innovation, a service organization for the promotion of start-ups and innovations in the research department of Freie Universität. Both start-ups were honored with the Gründungspreis and will receive prize money of 7,000 euros.
The award ceremony for the competition took place on 20 November as part of the Digital Summit 2023 in Jena. The guiding theme of this year’s event was “Digital transformation at the turn of an era. Sustainable. Resilient. Future-orientated”. In addition to individual coaching and networking opportunities offered by the start-up competition, the 21 outstanding teams can look forward to prize money totaling over 300,000 euros, awarded by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Robert Habeck and Anna Christmann, BMWK Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Start-ups.