Yesterday evening, three startups of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) won the CyberChampions Award of the CyberForum e.V. enterprise network. Honestly GmbH was winner in the category of “NewComer”, Videmo GmbH & Co. KG won the category of “HighPotentials”, and cynora GmbH was granted the Innovation Award by init AG. The CyberChampions Awards are granted annually to young and expanding enterprises in the Karlsruhe Technology Region.
Honestly GmbH is a startup established by four KIT graduates. It is supported by KIT and the Research Center for Information Technology (FZI). The startup commercializes a software-as-a-service solution, by means of which companies receive a direct feedback of their customers via a mobile application. Via an Android app, an iPhone app, or the mobile website of Honestly, customers can evaluate a service just rendered to them. Then, companies evaluate these feedbacks via a web platform or contact their customers directly. Contrary to online communities, such as Qype or Yelp, the feedbacks are not public and are directly sent to the responsible manager. Customers can contribute directly to improving the quality of the company. The companies can use the platform to enhance customer satisfaction.
More information: www.honestly.com
Videmo GmbH & Co. KG was established in 2008 and offers software solutions and systems in the area of automatic image processing. The team won the award with a software for intelligent video analysis. The technology analyzes faces according to various criteria. In this way, detailed statistics may be obtained with respect to age distribution of customers in the retail sales sector. The system can also be used in the security sector to enhance the efficiency and safety of access control systems. The technology is based on a process that supplies optimum results even under difficult operation conditions and at low image resolution.
More information: http://videmo.de
cynora GmbH studies novel organic semiconductors that emit colored or white light due to their physical properties and are applied in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The company covers the complete spectrum of materials and component research, from the design of new functional molecules for OLEDs and solar cells to their manufacture in the laboratory to physical suitability testing by appropriate methods. The organic electronics might be applied in foils for recharging laptops or smart phones when the sun shines. cynora GmbH has its offices at the KIT high-tech incubator, a complex of buildings, in which KIT makes available inexpensive infrastructure and offers vicinity to its research installations.
More information: www.cynora.com
The CyberChampions Awards for the three companies show that KIT startups are highly successful. The measurement technology company Unisensor GmbH, which was founded in 1990 already, was awarded the NEO2012 innovation award of the Karlsruhe Technology Region yesterday evening. Unisensor GmbH is a joint startup of the then Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences. A few days ago, IONYS AG, also a spinoff of KIT and the University of Applied Sciences, was ranked among the top ten of a total of 460 participants in the competition for the Baden-Württemberg State Award for Young Startups.
Information on founding at KIT: www.gruenden.kit.edu
Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.