Venture Lounge at Merck Innovation Center elects 3 winners

An insightful event with 8 innovative Startups presenting their business case, a panel of corporates and investors discussing about different investment strategies and a key note held by Dr. Lanthaler.

On invitation by Carlsquare Corporate Finance, Merck KGaA, SHS Gesellschaft für Beteiligungsmanagement, Paul Hartmann AG and HTGF , around 60 representatives of the Venture Capital scene met at Merck’s innovation center in Darmstadt.

Eight companies presented their business case, of which a jury of selected corporates and investors chose 3 winners. First place: Fedorov: food digitalization with “freshness tags” that measure food freshness.

The second place went to miRdetect: a blood test to diagnose and monitor testicular cancer.

Ranked third was Clustermarket: an online sharing platform for equipment in the Life Science industry.

In a panel discussion moderated by Caspar Graf Stauffenberg (CatCap), the participants Manfred Ulmer-Weber (SHS), Fritjof Franz (PAUL HARTMANN), Dr. Heiko Ott (ZFHN) and Dr. Bernd Goergen (HTGF) discussed different investment strategies and aspects, that convince them to make an investment.

in his keynote, Dr. Werner Lanthaler, CEO of Evotec, advocated a paradigm shift for life science innovations and shared insights of his experience in company building in the Life Science sector. He also foresees corporate investors to be essential to build a funding base for start-ups alongside with dedicated financial investors.

The Venture Lounge is an inherent part in the founder scene since 2003 and connects ideas, founders and investors. For more information, please visit: venture-lounge.de.[nbsp]