Master confectioners Ariane Hensch and Sven Walton of Confiserie Harmonie in Hattingen were nominated for the NRW Founders' Award 2022 – a great honor for the truffle and cake specialists. (Photo: © NRW.BANK)
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24 October 2022
The winners of the 2022 NRW Founders' Prize have been announced: Unigy GmbH from Essen impressed the jury with a digital offering for municipal utilities and energy suppliers. Confiserie Harmonie made it to the finals.
Unigy GmbH from Essen has won the NRW Founders' Award 2022. The company impressed the jury with a digital offering for municipal utilities and energy suppliers. The state's Ministry of Economic Affairs and NRW.Bank have awarded the prize for innovative and successful business ideas for the eleventh time.
Second place was awarded to Elyte Innovations GmbH from Münster, which develops innovative technologies for modern energy storage.
Third place goes to the Bochum-based software developer SalesViewer® GmbH.
The three companies will receive a total prize money of 60.000 euros.
Operations management
Operations management
Operations management
Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Mona Neubaur said in her laudatory speech at the K21 Ständehaus that the NRW Founders' Award 2022 showcases everything that characterizes the diverse startup landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia: "Courageous ideas, forward-looking technologies and a progressive corporate culture. I am particularly pleased that topics such as resource efficiency and climate justice are also playing an increasingly important role and enabling viable business models."
"As a development bank for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, we support ideas and innovations that advance NRW as a sustainable, but also digital, federal state," says Eckhard Forst, CEO of NRW.Bank.
A craft business also made it into the top ten nominees for the NRW Founders' Award 2022: Confiserie Harmonie from Hattingen , newly founded in 2019. The founders and master confectioners Ariane Hensch and Sven Walton produce cakes and chocolates by hand.
They use seasonal and regional ingredients and avoid convenience products and artificial flavorings. Confiserie Harmonie sources its couverture and chocolate from a B Corporation-certified manufacturer and uses only organic, fair-trade coffee.
In 2021, the two founders won the title "Rum Praline of the Year" with their creation "South Sea Harmony" at a competition held by the Weinberg Baking Academy and the Chocolate Academy in Cologne.
NRW Founders' Award – also for the skilled trades. With the NRW Founders' Award, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia honors successful founders, successors, and freelancers. With prize money totaling €60.000, the award is one of the most prestigious competitions for founders and successors in Germany. Skilled trades businesses regularly achieve success. For example, in 2021, "Die Hörgeräte Manufaktur" from Bad Honnef took third place.
Source: NRW.Bank; DHB
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