DEKRA Award 2019: Startups Welcome

The DEKRA Award 2019 has a new category: Startups can now apply for the prestigious safety award in a separate competition. Digital economy platform Gründerszene is championing the award as a network partner. There is also a new format for announcing the winner of this category. The audience at the award ceremony actually takes on the role of the jury and picks a winner from among the finalists. We are accepting applications until September 13, 2019.

• Additional category for digital startup companies
• Gründerszene platform becomes a network partner
• For information and application forms, visit www.dekra-award.de

International expert organization DEKRA and WirtschaftsWoche, Germany’s leading economics magazine, have for years been recognizing the very best in safety solutions with the DEKRA Award. Companies and organizations with outstanding projects and processes have previously been able to apply in three categories (Safety in Transport, Safety at Work and Safety at Home) based on a best practice principle.

The addition of the Startups category now means that startup companies with ideas and concepts for greater safety in the future can also apply, with emphasis placed on the potential and the benefits that can be derived from the idea. The jury is also being broadened to reflect the new category with the addition of Carlos Bhola, Co-Founder of Circ and Managing Partner of Celsius Capital.

“This new category means that innovative startups are not pitted against the budgets and processes of more established companies. The award applicants may include a suitable candidate for our DEKRA Next Incubator,” explained Dr. Kerim Galal, Executive Vice President for Strategy and Innovation at DEKRA. “We also have a network partner in Gründerszene that is a leading platform in the digital economy with excellent connections in the startup scene. With our new juror Carlos Bhola, we have gained a successful entrepreneur for whom safe micromobility is a primary concern.”

A panel of internal and external specialists will decide on the nominations in all categories of the DEKRA Award 2019. While the winner of the Startups category will be chosen by the audience in a pitch format, it is tradition for the award winners in the other categories (Transport, Work and Home) to be decided by a star-studded jury:

• Dr. Annette Niederfranke, Director of the International Labor Organization (ILO)
• Beat Balzli, Editor-in-Chief of WirtschaftsWoche
• Carlos Bhola, Co-Founder of Circ and Managing Partner of Celsius Capital
• Boris Böhme, Head of Product and System Safety at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
• Dr. Raimund Klinkner, Managing Director of the INSTITUTE FOR MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE
• Stefan Kölbl, Chairman of the Board of Management of DEKRA e.V. and DEKRA SE

The DEKRA Award Ceremony will be held in Berlin on Wednesday, October 23, 2019. In previous years, the award winners and nominees have included companies and organizations such as Airbus, Axa, BMW, Bornack, DB Deutsche Bahn, Eaton Industries, Caverion, Daimler, the German Road Safety Council (DVR), EBM-Papst, EnBW, Pflasterpass, Voith and Volkswagen.

Application forms and information is available at www.dekra-award.de