{"id":36331,"date":"2026-06-24T12:23:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/?p=36331"},"modified":"2026-08-27T10:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:22:22","slug":"eight-tu-darmstadt-start-ups-reach-the-semi-finals-of-the-hessischer-gruenderpreis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/news\/news-en\/eight-tu-darmstadt-start-ups-reach-the-semi-finals-of-the-hessischer-gruenderpreis\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight TU Darmstadt Start-ups Reach the Semi-Finals of the Hessischer Gr\u00fcnderpreis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    <section id=\"text-default-block-block_80e48b6b239243047600a9a42d3b37da\" class=\"container-fluid text-default text-default-block\">\n        <div class=\"inner-container\">\n            <div class=\"container-fluid\">\n                <div class=\"container\">\n                    <div class=\"row\">\n                        <div class=\"col col-sm-10 offset-sm-1 offset-lg-2 col-lg-8\">\n\n                            \n                                \n                                \n                                \n                                    \n                                    <div class=\"row text-wrapper container-6aa9e9c37a68b\">\n\n                                        \n                                                                                                                                                                                                <div class=\"col intro\">\n                                                        <p><strong>Eight ventures from TU Darmstadt have qualified for the semi-finals of the Hessischer Gr\u00fcnderpreis 2026. Seven are competing in the \u201cUniversity Spin-off\u201d category; one in the \u201cInnovative Business Idea\u201d category. In total, 48 Hessian start-ups have made it through to the semi-finals. The competition spans four categories: \u201cUniversity Spin-off\u201d, \u201cInnovative Business Idea\u201d, \u201cFuture-Proof Business Succession\u201d and \u201cSocial Impact\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n                                                    <\/div>\n                                                                                            \n                                            \n                                            \n                                            \n                                            \n                                        \n                                    <\/div>\n\n                                \n                                \n                            \n                                                                                                        <header class=\"row headline-wrapper\">\n                                        <div class=\"col\">\n                                            <h2 class=\"h2\">\n                                                The Eight Candidates at a Glance                                            <\/h2>\n                                        <\/div>\n                                    <\/header>\n                                \n                                \n                                \n                                \n                            \n                                \n                                \n                                \n                                    \n                                    <div class=\"row text-wrapper container-6aa9e9c37aa73\">\n\n                                        \n                                            \n                                            \n                                            \n                                                                                                                                                                                                <div class=\"col text\">\n                                                        <p>Seven teams from the TU Darmstadt community are competing in the <strong>\u201cUniversity Spin-off\u201d<\/strong> category:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Avakis<\/b>\u00a0targets 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 \u2013 replacing the need for bulky daylight lamps.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fablon.de\/about\/\"><strong>Fablon<\/strong><\/a> 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.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fenexity.com\/de\"><strong>Fenexity<\/strong><\/a> 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\u2019s software calculates this automatically, drawing on timetable data, energy prices and grid constraints.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genow.ai\/de\/unternehmen\/\"><strong>Genow<\/strong><\/a> 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\u2019s knowledge available on demand via AI. To date, Genow has raised \u20ac1.65 million in seed funding, including from the High-Tech Gr\u00fcnderfonds.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/de\/news\/sucess-story\/die-zukunft-der-patientenkommunikation\/\"><strong>MediEm<\/strong><\/a> 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.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/optimigration.com\/de\/\"><strong>OptiMigration<\/strong><\/a> 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.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qitech.de\/\"><strong>QiTech<\/strong><\/a> closes a gap in the 3D printing industry: those who print generate plastic waste \u2013 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n                                                    <\/div>\n                                                                                            \n                                            \n                                        \n                                            \n                                            \n                                            \n                                                                                                                                                                                                <div class=\"col text\">\n                                                        <p>One team from the TU Darmstadt community is also represented in the <strong>\u201cInnovative Business Idea\u201d<\/strong> category:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/productionary.ai\/de\/\"><strong>Productionary<\/strong><\/a> 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n                                                    <\/div>\n                                                                                            \n                                            \n                                        \n                                    <\/div>\n\n                                \n                                \n                            \n                        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n<section id=\"video-image-slider-block-block_523d7f2879437d74ebdb561d01b6e439\" class=\"container-fluid img-video video-image-slider-block\">\n    <div class=\"inner-container\">\n        <div class=\"container-fluid\">\n            <div class=\"container\">\n\n                \n                \n                    <div class=\"row  slide-container\">\n                        <div class=\"col  slider-video\">\n\n                                                                                                                    \n                            \n                                                                    <div class=\"slide\">\n                                        <div class=\"row\">\n                                            <div class=\"col slide-content\">\n                                                <div class=\"row media-wrapper\">\n                                                    <div class=\"col media-content\">\n                                                        <a class=\"open-popup image \" href=\"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Highest_News_Website-Teaser-13.png\" >\n                                                                                                                                                                                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"slider-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Highest_News_Website-Teaser-13.png\" >\n                                                                                                                    <\/a>\n                                                    <\/div>\n                                                <\/div>\n                                            <\/div>\n                                        <\/div>\n                                                                            <\/div>\n                                \n                            \n                        <\/div>\n\n                        \n                    <\/div>\n\n                \n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n    <section id=\"text-default-block-block_a59c02249a5c36e5d4beef3fc1e7a13d\" class=\"container-fluid text-default text-default-block\">\n        <div class=\"inner-container\">\n            <div class=\"container-fluid\">\n                <div class=\"container\">\n                    <div class=\"row\">\n                        <div class=\"col col-sm-10 offset-sm-1 offset-lg-2 col-lg-8\">\n\n                            \n                                \n                                \n                                \n                                    \n                                    <div class=\"row text-wrapper container-6aa9e9c37cc53\">\n\n                                        \n                                            \n                                            \n                                            \n                                                                                                                                                                                                <div class=\"col text\">\n                                                        <h2>Darmstadt: a Hub with Substance<\/h2>\n<p>It comes as no surprise that eight TU Darmstadt teams have reached the semi-finals. TU Darmstadt is the only technical university in the state of Hesse. Its Innovation and Start-up Centre HIGHEST has supported more than 200 start-ups on their journey to market since the centre was founded. As the leading technology incubator in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main metropolitan region, HIGHEST focuses on deep tech and green tech. Together with partners such as Futury, TechQuartier and ryon, it has built a network that supports founders from initial idea through to scaling.<\/p>\n                                                    <\/div>\n                                                                                            \n                                            \n                                        \n                                            \n                                            \n                                            \n                                                                                                                                                                                                <div class=\"col text\">\n                                                        <p><em>We at HIGHEST are delighted for all eight teams and offer our heartfelt congratulations. The semi-finals will take place in Offenbach in September 2026. We are already looking forward to the final on 6 November. Fingers crossed!<\/em><\/p>\n                                                    <\/div>\n                                                                                            \n                                            \n                                        \n                                    <\/div>\n\n                                \n                                \n                            \n                        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n<section id=\"teaser-newsletter-block-block_fd8af46ecb32a86f7ceb9317afcfaff8\" class=\"container-fluid outer teaser-newsletter teaser-newsletter-block\">\n    <div class=\"inner-container\">\n        <div class=\"container-fluid teaser-content\">\n            <div class=\"main-content \">\n                <div class=\"content bg-dark-blue\">\n                    <div class=\"row\">\n\n                                                    <div class=\"col-12 col-lg-5 headline-wrapper\">\n                                <p class=\"h3\">\n                                    Bleib auf dem Laufenden mit dem HIGHEST-Newsletter                                <\/p>\n                            <\/div>\n                        \n                        <div class=\"col-12 col-lg-6 offset-lg-1\">\n\n                            <form class=\"form-newsletter\">\n\n                                <div class=\"form-field\">\n                                    <label for=\"email\"> Your E-Mail<\/label>\n                                    <input type=\"email\" name=\"email\" placeholder=\"muster@gmail.com\">\n                                <\/div>\n\n                                <div class=\"container-checkbox dark\">\n                                    <input type=\"checkbox\">\n                                    <span class=\"checkmark\"><\/span>\n                                                                    <\/div>\n\n                                <div class=\"submit-field\">\n                                    <button type=\"submit\" class=\"button button-primary\">Subscribe<\/button>\n                                <\/div>\n\n                            <\/form>\n\n                        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eight ventures from TU Darmstadt have qualified for the semi-finals of the Hessischer Gr\u00fcnderpreis 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":36330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[1036],"class_list":["post-36331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-hessischer-gruenderpreis-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36969,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36331\/revisions\/36969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highest-darmstadt.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}