pickz ai has reached the next milestone on its start-up journey: The Hamburg-based start-up has been awarded the EXIST start-up grant and will be funded by the program for one year from 1 November. The young company has developed a solution for opticians and their customers that digitizes the entire consultation process for finding the right glasses. The AI-supported application provides support from the initial search for preferred models, through the needs analysis for the respective eyes and individual eyesight, to the purchase of glasses.

Great success for Vaarhaft. The start-up took second place in the Founder's Award, which was presented for the 19th time by the Junior Chamber of Commerce of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. The Founder's Award comes with prize money totaling €20,000+ and coaching sessions. Vaarhaft has developed software that detects fake photos and videos within seconds. This is particularly important in the age of AI, which makes it easy to create deceptively real photos and videos.

The Hamburg-based start-up 3D Spark can celebrate a significant success: Deutsche Bahn has approved the young company's CO2 reporting tool for the production of on-demand spare parts. The solution enables precise, automated calculation of the carbon footprint per component – broken down by material, manufacturing process and post-processing. This allows Deutsche Bahn to make sound decisions on reducing its environmental impact while also making production processes more efficient.

The Startup Port in Harburg once again hosted its startup camp over an entire weekend from September 5 to 7. At the Startup Port@TUHH premises, 14 enthusiastic participants worked intensively on 13 startup ideas, accompanied by experts from academia and industry. In a mix of workshops, mentoring sessions, and pitch formats, the ideas were critically examined, refined, and prepared for the next steps. The focus was on topics such as business model development, financing and funding, prototyping, and pitch training.