20th Frankfurt Founder Award — the winners
The folding stairs of the founding trio raumvonwert prevailed against 25 applicants — special prize of the jury to the fashion label Zemuye
On Monday evening, City Councilor Markus Frank announced the winners of the Frankfurt Founder’s Prize 2020 via livestream from the Kaisersaal des Römers.
This year, the 14-member jury awarded the startup raumvonwert GmbH with the 1st prize. The mission of the founders Lukas Wagner, Bastian Amberg and Katja Becker is to use creative ideas to develop individual solutions in the field of interior design, furniture and product design in order to upgrade even the smallest living space. They already succeeded in doing this with their first highlight product, the space-saving Klapster folding staircase, which is designed in such a way that all modular components can be put together individually. This allows you to put together the exact staircase that fits your own four walls, precisely fitting the floor height or angle size. The first place of the Frankfurt Founders’ Prize 2020 is endowed with prize money of 12,500 euros.
With the 2nd prize and 10,000 euros, the architectural firm was lithium designer GmbH Dr.-Ing. Alamir Mohsen excellent. Not only is the successful young company planning appealing and complex building envelopes — Alamir Mohsen also developed the first 3D-printed facade node, which is so light and so variable that it can be used to produce freely designed facades more easily and much more cheaply. The knot and the printing process are so innovative that he applied for a patent for it. The first building in the world in which the facade nodes from the 3D printer will be installed should be in place by the end of 2020.
3rd prize: Die Auffüllerei GmbH and Die Backhelden
The companies Die Auffüllerei GmbH and Die Backhelden (sole proprietorship) were equally convincing , which is why both were awarded 3rd prize and prize money of 3,750 euros each. The founders Christina Schwab and Marlen Richter have declared war with the replenishment of food waste and packaging waste. In their shop, customers can buy everything from cornflakes to red wine vinegar to detergents without packaging. And thus meet the growing need for a sustainable lifestyle and careful use of resources. The founder Luwam Tecle-Debesay and her brother Joel have with Die Backheldenfound a time-saving solution that sweetens every child’s birthday. A backbox is delivered to your home, pre-packed with measured ingredients and loving decorative elements, with which impressive birthday cakes can be conjured up in no time — this is how the desperate baker becomes a radiant baker!
In addition, Oliver Schwebel, managing director of the Frankfurt Economic Development Agency and chairman of the jury, announced at the beginning of the award ceremony that a special prize would be given to the young fashion label Zemuye (sole proprietorship). The jury reserves the right to award special prizes every year — it has only made use of it in really large exceptional cases in the last twenty years. With her young label, the founder and designer Rahel Zemuye combines casual streetwear with traditional fabric elements from East Africa. The jury sees Ms. Zemuyes founder personality and her professionalism as a figurehead for the fashion location Frankfurt am Main.
“The Frankfurt Founders’ Prize is particularly important in our startup and founding landscape. Anyone who has been awarded the Frankfurt Founder’s Prize is ennobled with a seal of quality, ”said City Councilor Markus Frank. This year the Frankfurt Founders Prize was awarded for the 20th time. In order to comply with the current hygiene and distance regulations in the course of the pandemic, the award ceremony was broadcast by Rhein-Main TV via live stream from the Römer. Only a limited number of guests were allowed on site, taking into account the current regulations. The audience in front of the live stream and in the hall were entertainingly accompanied through the evening by the presenter Anke Seeling.
In the 20th year of the competition, 26 companies from Frankfurt am Main submitted their applications for the Frankfurt Founders Award. A total of 612 companies have applied with their business ideas since the award was launched. The jury showed a keen sense of the past when selecting the winners. “Over 80 percent of the 70 winners who have received awards so far are still successful in the market. That shows how sustainable and solid the business ideas of the award winners are, ”says Oliver Schwebel happily.
The recording of the award ceremony is available on the Youtube channel of the Frankfurt Economic Development Corporation and at http://bit.ly/frankfurtergruenderpreis2020 .
