UpNano: Winner of #glaubandich-Challenge 2019

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At the “4GameChangers Festival” in Vienna in April, the startup UpNano was selected as the overall winner of the “#glaubandich-Challenge 2019” (believe in yourself challenge) sponsored by Erste Bank und Sparkassen and was thus also named the “Startup of the Year”.

The industrial startup beat out nine other candidates in the finals of Austria’s largest startup competition. UpNano has developed and patented high-resolution 3D printing for micro-components. “Everything is becoming smaller and smaller and more powerful. This also comprises a challenge for manufacturing industry”, stated founder Denise Mandt. “We can print a castle on a sharpened pencil tip,” she added. An UpNano print costs about half a million euros. The method is particularly interesting for medical technology, because living cells can also be incorporated.

Over the past months the #glaubandich-Challenge 2019 toured throughout Austria. In the preliminary selection process, it selected the best young startup in each of the following fields: MedTech (SteadySense), Mobility (Carployee), Tourism (RateBoard), Energy (Fishcon), Industry (UpNano) and FinTech (getsby). The startup Kurvenkratzer qualified via a community voting, whereas TeamEcho, Danube Tech and igevia were given wild cards for the finals in the pre-pitch phase. The competition was supported by the TV station Puls4 and Trending Topics.

Read more about successful startups in Austria.