Event WORLDFACTORY Hosts Event for International Start-up Competition

Update from July 29, 2024

Researchers, start-ups, companies and anyone who is interested can now register online for the Stage Two Wildcard Event

Original news article

Stage Two, the largest pan-European start-up competition for university start-ups, is the go-to event for European university spin-offs. Last year, more than 40 universities from 20 European countries sent their most innovative early-stage start-ups to Berlin for the final round of the competition. The Wildcard Event on September 19, 2024 at the O-Werk will give 12 international start-ups the unique opportunity to take to the Stage Two podium without being nominated by their home university. The event is organized by the WORLDFACTORY of Ruhr University Bochum. WORLDFACTORY has been an official member of the Stage Two network since March 2024.

Up for grabs: four wildcards

All national and international university spin-offs have until August 25, 2024 to apply for the Wildcard Event in Bochum. The departments and start-up ideas can take very different forms. For example, the wildcard winners of the last round are working on the biofabrication of organs and human tissue with a view to revolutionizing transplant medicine and plastic surgery. But the jury was also extremely impressed by an AI-based software for production control systems. A total of four wildcards with different focuses will be awarded: the Industrial Innovation Wildcard from Siemens, the HR Tech Wildcard from Bertelsmann and EMBRACE, the Impact Startup Wildcard from better ventures, as well as the Female Team Wildcard from the Female Academic Entrepreneurs (FACE) Incubator of the WORLDFACTORY Start-up Center.

Taking center stage in front of top investors

The four wildcard winners and more than 50 of the best early-stage start-ups from European universities will take part in the final round of the competition in Berlin on October 31, 2024. The finalists will compete for prize money totaling over 5 million euros. The main criteria will be teamwork, innovative strength, scalability and competitiveness of the start-up idea.

“Stage Two is the biggest competition for university start-ups in the whole of Europe. Even just qualifying was great news for us. Many of the most renowned European investors were present at the event, and so it was a good opportunity to pitch in the final,” says Dr. Dennis Michaelis from GEMESYS. The deep-tech spin-off from Ruhr University Bochum won three prizes last year, including the Stage Two Movement Award.

© RWTH Aachen University / HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management

About Stage Two

Stage Two is the largest pan-European competition for university-based early-stage start-ups. The annual competition is organized by RWTH Aachen University and HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. Stage Two brings together visionary talents from all over Europe on and off the stage: True to the motto “For Our Beyond”, the best start-ups from European universities will compete against each other in front of top-class investors and industry experts at an exclusive pitch competition and networking event in Berlin.

The final in Berlin will be preceded by a local university round (Stage One), in which the entrepreneurship centers of the participating universities will select their best startup, which will then compete at international level. The main event is embedded in a growing international community of start-ups, universities, companies and VC firms. Away from the podium, the Stage Two community promotes the continuous exchange of knowledge and best practices between the participating universities in regular roundtables in order to harness the full innovation potential of Europe. Stage Two was initiated as part of the EXIST-Potentials initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection and is additionally supported by various partner companies.