We win the Senkrechtstarter Award 2026
We have won the Senkrechtstarter Award 2026. At the final on September 15 at the Starlight Express Theater in Bochum, we competed in a live pitch against four other startups from North Rhine Westphalia and secured first place.
The final ranking was decided jointly by a panel of experts and the audience. At the end of the competition, we were presented with the first prize by Mona Neubaur, Minister for Economic Affairs of North Rhine Westphalia, and Bochum’s Mayor Jörg Lukat. The award comes with €25,000 in prize money, provided by Sparkasse Bochum.
Record number of applications
The Senkrechtstarter Award is organized annually by Bochum Wirtschaftsentwicklung and is open to startups from across North Rhine Westphalia. This year, 121 teams with a total of 272 founders applied, marking the highest number of applications in the competition’s almost 20 year history.
Ten teams were initially selected from all applications, with five ultimately qualifying for the final in Bochum. We are all the more delighted to have secured first place. With the prize money and the new contacts made during the competition, we want to continue taking the next steps at blixdata. Over the coming months, our focus will be on further developing our product, expanding our sales activities and preparing for our next funding round.
A big thank you to Bochum Wirtschaftsentwicklung, the jury, the audience and everyone involved for organizing the competition and for a great evening at the Starlight Express Theater.