AI Beyond Borders Awards 2023
Celebrating German startups on their journey around the globe
The German Entrepreneurship’s AI Beyond Borders Awards have been created to recognize the top 3 German AI startups who are not only pushing the boundaries in artificial intelligence technology, but also are about to take off on an exciting journey across borders to expand internationally.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) startups face particular challenges when they take their business across international borders, be those national data regulations, or simply the cultural acceptance of artificial intelligence technology. It’s important for startups to plan for internationalization early, to educate themselves on potential markets, to make early connections, and to forge long-term partnerships in each new country. At German Entrepreneurship, we understand the challenges startups face around international expansion and we have been helping startups overcome these challenges for the last 15+ years through programs such as German Accelerator, Scale-up.NRW, Scaler8, or the EU-India Innocenter.
The annual awards are organized by the AI Competence Center, an initiative funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany and run by German Entrepreneurship GmbH.
The Prizes
The AI Beyond Borders Awards 2023 will celebrate the top 3 German AI startups with prizes and amazing additional benefits, such as pitch trainings, stage time at Bits & Pretzels and many more.
25,000 €
15,000 €
10,000 €
In addition to cash prizes, all 3 finalists will receive the following
- In addition to cash prizes, award winners will receive a package of benefits facilitating their international scaling and providing them with tremendous visibility across the European AI ecosystem and the global investment community – via various media channels.
- Through German Accelerator’s top ranked programs, the finalist startups will take advantage of expert support for as long as 6 months in their expansion journey to the next international market of their choice, e.g., Asia or US
- 1 year complementary membership to the KI Park network of AI experts in Berlin
- Top5 receive a "Golden Ticket" to an exclusive Bits&Pretzels Founders&VC Side Event, organised by our partner Bird&Bird
- TOP3 receive one prestigious "VC Wild Cards", each including three 1:1 investor meetings organized by Bird&Bird
Timeline & Dates
Application Deadline
Round 1: Jury Selection (Shortlist)
July 31, 2023 – August 6, 2023
Round 2: Jury Selection (Finalists)
August 14, 2023 – August 31, 2023
Finalist Announcement
Winner Announcement / Pitches @ Bits & Pretzels
September 24, 2023
Who can participate?
You develop foundational machine learning technologies (such as language models) and/or deployment infrastructure solutions (MLOps)
Or if you have developed a machine learning technology and implemented it in your product(s)
Applicants must have a legal entity in Germany and have raised ideally 500k or more of external funding since their inception.*
*DeepTech applicants, who have been in receipt of invisible governmental supports, will be considered on an ad hoc basis.
How to Participate?
In order to be considered for the AI Beyond Borders Awards 2023, you need to answer a questionnaire and submit a pitch deck through the awards application
We want to empower startups with a global vision in their expansion. How do you envisage the global market for your product? What are potential barriers to expansion and how do you plan to deal with these barriers?
Fill out the form and give us the information we need to understand your business model, USP, and technical solution. Please describe your use of AI technology and how you consider this technology will create value for its users.
Please upload your pitch deck in English in PDF format 16:9 (named after your startup’s name). The pitch deck should include: problem, solution, AI solution, business model, market, competition, scalability, big picture, financials, team and should not be longer than 20 pages.
Jury Members 2023
Dr. Mathias Bauer
Serial Entrepreneur & AI Expert
Xpect
Prof. Dr. Sabina Jeschke
CEO
KI Park e.V.
Laurence Liew
Director, AI Innovation
AI Singapore
Asst Prof.Reza Shokri
Assistant Professor
National University of Singapore
Dr. Andreas Hauser
CEO, Digital Service
TÜV SÜD
Dr. Vrizlynn Thing
SVP, Cybersecurity Strategic Technology Centre
ST Engineering
Shilpa Kolhatkar
Global Head of AI Nations
Nvidia
Horia Mărgărit
Director of Machine Learning
Walmart
Dr. Lily Rachmawati
Principal Data Scientist
Boston Consulting Group
Dr. Deb Goswami
AI Technologist (ASEAN/ANZ)
NVIDIA
Mei May Soo
Chief AI Officer
Dell Technologies
David Yoon
Partner at Ylab
Faculty at University of California at Berkeley
Dr. Christian Temath
CEO
KI.NRW
Dr. Thorsten Lambertus
Managing Director, DEEP
ESMT Berlin
Dr. Anna Bauer-Mehren
Head of Analytics, pRED Data & Analytics
Roche Diagnostics GmbH
Dr. Marius Brand
Head of Technology & Data APAC
DB Schenker
Maks Giordano
CEO
juuman´okudo
Wieland Holfelder
Vice President Engineering & Site Lead
Google
Ali Chaudhry
Product Leader in AI
formerly Caption Health
Dr. Igor Markov
Research Scientist
Meta
Ray Garcia
Managing Director
Buoyant Capital
Sandy Diao
Director of Growth at Descript; Growth Advisor at Drift Intl; Investor at IOVC
Descript
Daniel Dahlmeier
Chief Data Scientist
SAP
Dr. Paul Schmiedmayer
Postdoctoral Researcher
Stanford University, Byers Center for Biodesign
Dr. Samaneh Aminikhanghahi
Research Scientist
Amazon
Holly Peck
Vice President, Special Projects
Soul Machines
Celine Perrot
AI Innovation Lead
BMW AG
Eva Gengler
Co-Founder & Managing Director @FemAI
Co-Founder @enableYou
Dr. Anna Maria Gajda
Chief People Officer
LeanIX
Partners of the AI Beyond Borders Awards 2023
The winners of the AI Beyond Borders Awards 2022
Our international expert jury had carefully selcted the top three applicants as runner-ups for the awards. They presented their business idea to a global audience at the European AI Summit on October 27, 2022.
Bavarian State Minister for Science and Art Markus Blume and Prof. Matthias Notz, CEO of German Entrepreneurship and German Accelerator, announced the winner as well as the second and third place.
Markus Blume, Bavarian State Minister for Science and Art:
“What makes the AI Beyond Borders Awards special is the focus on the startups’ potential for successful internationalization,” explains Prof. Matthias Notz, Managing Director of German Entrepreneurship and German Accelerator. “The three finalists will receive up to six months of professional support for their expansion to Singapore, Southeast Asia, or North America from the AI Competence Center’s locally well-connected mentors and experts.”
1st place
Ianus Simulation GmbH
IANUS is a German deep tech Scale-up located in Dortmund that has developed a cloud-based AI-assisted simulation framework so that mechanical engineering companies of all sizes can design their machines completely digitally and significantly increase their productivity, resource efficiency and sustainability.
2nd place
Signatrix GmbH
Signatrix enables brick-and-mortar retailers to unlock their stores’ potential with AI apps: Detecting fraud, optimizing operations and understanding what their customers want – the Signatrix AI Suite offers solutions tailored to every single store.
3rd place
hema.to GmbH
Millions of patients with immune diseases such as blood cancer receive the wrong treatment every year. hema.to provides objective AI-based diagnostics and prognostics of the immune system, to personalize treatment for every patient.
You have questions? Get in Touch
Sabine Wiesmüller, PhD
Director Europe at the AI Competence Center
Jonas Fahl
Project Lead AI Beyond Borders Awards