On September 6, the final of the 9th Business Plan Competition took place at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI). Three teams were in the final round, competing for start-up capital and support worth 100,000 euros. In the end, team Nailvision was able to convince the jury, consisting of Prof. Dr. Christoph Meinel, Robin Staszek, Dr. Moritz Matthey and Dr. Frank Pawlitschek, of their business idea.

HPI E-School organized the HPI Business Plan Competition for the ninth time in 2021, in which it aims to support young start-ups together with the HPI Seed Fund. A total of 18 start-up teams with at least one HPI member participated in the competition. Since mid-May, the young entrepreneurs have presented their ideas and received targeted feedback and input over several phases in order to work intensively on their business model.

The winners of the HPI Business Plan Competition 2021: Nailvision

With the idea of using artificial intelligence to examine, monitor and support patients in the treatment of their nail diseases, the founding team Nailvision convinced the jury and won the ninth business plan competition at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI). On the morning of September 6, Nataniel Müller, Konstantin Dobler and Simon Shabo were delighted to receive their prizes, which include personal scholarships of up to €50,000, an investment offer of €50,000 from the HPI Seed Fund and one year of business coaching from the HPI School of Entrepreneurship (E-School). The competition is organised by the E-School together with the HPI Seed Fund. The E-School also supports the teams in the process of developing their start-up idea.

The three HPI master's students would like to use the winnings to start their clinical studies to pave the way for CE certification and to implement initial pilot projects.

"We would like to support students at HPI to develop their ideas and products and to create their own companies from them", says HPI Institute Director and jury member Professor Christoph Meinel. Together with Robin Staszek (Senior Manager Direct Investments HPC Group and Managing Director HPI Seed Fund), Dr. Morith Matthey (Manager Business Development and Strategic Projects at Hasso Plattner Foundation and HPC Group) und Dr. Frank Pawlitschek (Director E-School and Managing Director HPI Seed Fund), Meinel congratulated the winners and handed over a symbolic cheque for 100,000 euros.

The combination of practical university education and integrated entrepreneurship support at HPI is unique and allows the young talents in Potsdam to benefit twice over: https://hpi.de/studium/entrepreneurship.html