AI Beyond Borders AwardsÂ
Celebrating AI Startups 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 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.”
And the winner is…

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.
Our Jury consists of distinguished AI experts including

Thomas Neubert
GM, Datacenter and AI Cloud Execution and Strategy Group
Founder/Evangelist, Transatlantic AI eXchange
📍 United States

Dirk Hofmann
Co-Founder and CEO,
DAIN Studios Germany
📍 Germany

Eva-Maria Olbers
Operating Partner,
Point72 Ventures
📍 United States

Jan Beger
Senior Director, Digital Ecosystem Europe, GE Healthcare
📍 Germany

Siew Choo Soh
Chief Information Officer,
MetLife Asia
📍 Hong Kong

Marius Rosenberg
Managing Director Excellence Start-up Center,
RWTH Aachen University
📍 Germany

Raju Chellam
Chief Editor, AI Ethics & Governance Body of Knowledge,
Singapore Computer Society
📍 Singapore

Prof. Dr. Sabine Remdisch
Professor of Business Psychology,
Leuphana University
Director,
Leadership Garage
Head,
Institute of Performance Management
📍 Germany

RĂĽdiger SĂĽĂź
Senior Strategist, Foresight & Trends,
DLR – German Aerospace Center
📍 Germany

Dr. Parham (Paul) Shahidi
Industrial AI & Manufacturing Design
Program Director, Transatlantic AI eXchange
📍 United States

Keith B. Carter
Partner,
KBC Global Partners
📍 Singapore

Prof. Dr. Sabina Jeschke
CEO, KI Park e.V.
CTO, Quantagonia GmbH
CEO, Arctic Brains AB
📍 Germany

Prof. Alex Siow
Professor, National University of Singapore
📍 Singapore

Dr. Gao Yujia
Director, Undergraduate Medical Education,
NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
📍 Singapore

Michael Lew
Managing Director, Ankura
Chair, Cyber Risk Sub-Comm, SFA
📍 Singapore

Dr. James Ong
Founder & Managing Director,
Artificial Intelligence International Institute (AIII)
📍 Singapore
How to Participate?
In order to be considered for the AI Beyond Borders Awards 2022, you need to answer the following three questions and submit a pitch deck along with an optional video recording through the awards application.

- What have you done to prepare for an international expansion of your business?
- Please describe your use of AI technology, in your product, and how you consider this technology will transfer to different geographic locations.
- How do you envisage the global market for your product? What are potential barriers to expansion? How do you plan to deal with these barriers?

REQUIRED
Pitch deck for a 2-3 min pitch as you imagine presenting your startup at the European AI Summit event. [PDF only]

OPTIONAL
Link to a pitch video hosted on YouTube or similar platforms.
Who can participate?
Seed-funded or Series A+ AI startups developing applied or foundational artificial intelligence solutions.
You classify as an AI startup if:
→ 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)Â
Applicants must have a legal entity in Germany and have raised at least €500k since their inception.*
*DeepTech applicants, who have been in receipt of invisible governmental supports, will be considered on an ad hoc basis.