Eight TU Darmstadt Start-ups Reach the Semi-Finals of the Hessischer Gründerpreis

Seven teams from the TU Darmstadt community are competing in the “University Spin-off” category:

• Avakis targets people who struggle with low energy and poor sleep during the winter months. The start-up has developed a light therapy device worn like ordinary glasses, which directs LED light towards the eyes. In the morning it helps users wake up; in the evening it aids the wind-down – replacing the need for bulky daylight lamps.
• Fablon is working on the production of cultivated meat: real animal tissue grown from cells, without the need for slaughter. The problem: current production requires expensive, large-scale facilities. Fablon builds compact, modular bio-printing systems that can be deployed locally, making it more affordable to enter the cultivated meat market. The TU spin-out has two professors on its founding team.
• Fenexity solves a daily planning challenge for operators of electric bus and lorry fleets: which vehicle charges when, without overloading the grid or jeopardising operations? Fenexity’s software calculates this automatically, drawing on timetable data, energy prices and grid constraints.
• Genow observed that sales teams spend too much time searching internal documents instead of serving customers. The TU spin-off, founded in 2023, makes a company’s knowledge available on demand via AI. To date, Genow has raised €1.65 million in seed funding, including from the High-Tech Gründerfonds.
• MediEm addresses a daily source of lost time for nursing staff: outdated emergency call and communication systems in hospitals. The start-up, founded in 2023, is developing an intelligent infrastructure that routes emergency calls more quickly and reduces response times in critical situations.
• OptiMigration tackles a well-known problem: immigration proceedings in Germany take too long, and immigration authorities are overstretched. The AI-powered software aims to cut processing times by up to 80 per cent and has been developed in Germany in full compliance with the GDPR.
• QiTech closes a gap in the 3D printing industry: those who print generate plastic waste – and then buy expensive filament on top of that. QiTech manufactures filament from recycled plastic and builds the machines with which users can produce their own material.

One team from the TU Darmstadt community is also represented in the “Innovative Business Idea” category:

• Productionary targets small and medium-sized manufacturing companies that often have little visibility of what is going wrong on the shop floor. The software delivers real-time data on running processes, makes bottlenecks visible and helps to reduce throughput times. No new hardware is required.