Europe’s First Ever Startup Competition: "Stage Two”

A great opportunity to accelerate the founding processes of their own companies now presents itself for SPECTER Automation and LIDROTEC, two new WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management startups. They will be allowed to present their business models at the finals of the first ever pan-European startup competition "Stage Two" in Berlin on October 29, 2021. In order to make it this far, they first had to beat out six other WHU startups in the semifinals.

SPECTER Automation is one of the two up and comers to win a ticket to the finals in Berlin after competing at the WHU semifinals. The WHU-based team of founders comprises Emanuel Groh, Oliver Eischet, and Niklas Beese (all BSc 2018) together with their co-founders Max Gier and Moritz Cremer from RWTH Aachen. Their startup makes it possible to transfer digital planning data directly to the correlating physical construction site for visual inspection. Additionally, the use of artificial intelligence makes it possible to identify problems and improve the planning process. Their concept convinced the six-member jury consisting of WHU alumni and business experts that they deserve to make it to the next round of the competition. 

LIDROTEC’s concept also paved its founders’ way to Berlin. The startup focuses on materials processing with ultra-short laser pulses and hopes to improve the high precision cutting, drilling, and structuring of materials. Techniques developed by the Lidrotec team allow the process speed to increase while maintaining the highest possible level of precision. Moreover, a significantly cleaner surface is achieved than with previous processes. WHU alumnus Alexander Igelmann (BSc 2012, MSc 2014) and his co-founders Jannis Köhler, Jan Hoppius, and Alexander Kanitz from Ruhr University Bochum founded the startup and impressed the jury with their innovative approach.

At the Stage Two finals, only two startups from each of the best European universities will be selected to present their ideas. The winners of the final round will receive further financial support for their startup as well as recognition at the European level. 

The semi-finals at WHU were conducted entirely online. Each startup was given five minutes for their pitch and was asked questions by the judges during a short Q&A afterwards. WHU is keeping its fingers crossed for SPECTER Automation and LIDROTEC at the Berlin finals on October 29^th.

Register here to watch the finals.