Stuttgart, December 18, 2014 – “Once again, we have been overwhelmed by the response to our CONTEST,” says Ulrich Dietz, CEO of the GFT Group and the initiator of CODE_n. “Although the Internet of Things is on everybody’s lips at the moment, it’s no easy territory for startups. You can’t simply program an app one day and expect investors to stand in line for it the next. You need industry and process know-how to succeed in this highly promising sector.” The decisive factor for Dietz is therefore the quality of the entries in the four topic areas Industry 4.0, Future Mobility, Smart City and Digital Life: “The first impression of the entries we’ve received is excellent. The jury will have its work cut out to choose the best 50 business models and the winner of the CODE_n CONTEST. This is also good news for established companies in these fields who are currently digitizing their original business model – or planning to do so. There are a lot of bright young people out there with innovative ideas and extensive technological know-how who can help industry leaders drive their transformation process. Our CODE_n ecosystem is designed to bring the two sides together.”
Now that the submission period has expired, there is already an indication of the major focus areas in which the young companies are engaged:
In the field of Industry 4.0, startups are focusing mainly on platform solutions which companies can use to enhance the efficiency of their maintenance, administration and development processes for machine-to-machine applications.
Many young companies are working on Future Mobility solutions, such as how to handle the lack of parking space in major cities or how to network even older vehicles. E-mobility is a further focus area – especially the management of a battery-charging infrastructure and easy pay options.
Connected homes is the main focus of the Smart City topic. There are sensor and operating solutions for everything from the measurement of domestic air quality to controlling the home’s own wine cellar. Other popular areas include ideas and applications for intelligent energy usage.
As expected, most of the submissions were in the field of Digital Life. True to the maxim “everything that can be connected, will be connected”, many startups are working on solutions for connected toothbrushes, cameras, sports equipment and much more besides – often integrated into so-called gamification environments, i.e. game apps aimed at raising motivation for the respective activity. Among the applicants in the field of banking services, the FinTechs are focusing mainly on putting the customer at the center of everything. Particularly encouraging is the trend among startups to focus on security and data privacy – in order to keep our digital lives as private as possible.
The CODE_n15 jury was also formed on the submission closing date. It consists of:
- · Klaus Bauer, Head of Basic Technology Development, TRUMPF Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH + Co. KG
· Klaas Bollhöfer, Chief Data Scientist at The unbelievable Machine Company
· Laurent Delaporte, CEO of NetMediaEurope
· Ulrich Dietz (chair), CEO of the GFT Group
· Frank Engelhardt, VP Enterprise Strategy for Salesforce
· Manfred Engeser, Head of the Management & Success section at WirtschaftsWoche and responsible for the Neumacher Conference and Founder Contest
· Uli Huener, Head of Innovation Management at EnBW, Energie Baden-Württemberg AG
· Carsten Knop, Senior Business Editor, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
· Olaf Riedel, Advisory Competencies & Services Leader Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Ernst & Young GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
· Frank Riemensperger, Country Managing Director of Accenture in Germany and co-chairman of the Smart Service Welt working academy
· Benedict Rodenstock, Founder and Managing Director of Astutia Ventures GmbH
Dietz: “The jury members bring extensive experience in entrepreneurship, industry and digitization to the assessment process. I’m therefore confident that we can present the absolute avant-garde of the digital world once again in our CODE_n hall at the CeBIT in March.”
