Successful Teams
At the final on 12 May, the student start-up team Gellit from the team from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics won first place. The team presented an innovative solution for agriculture. It organic fertiliser that simultaneously improves the water retention capacity of agricultural soil and releases nutrients for plants.
Second place was won by the Fit für Immer start-up team from the University of Regensburg. With the innovative video content of the software they have developed, they want to bring about a digital improvement in the care of the elderly and to caregivers.
Third place went to Farmit, from the University of Belgrade, which developed a platform to connect end to connect end users with local farmers. With Farmit, users obtain healthy vegetables from their own virtual gardens and the farmers secure their jobs and earn higher incomes for themselves.
From Passau, the Lesson Organizer team successfully participated in the competition. The team is developing a collaborative planning and management tool for lessons. It is designed to make lesson planning for teachers more efficient, more cooperative and more digital.
Competition and Networking
Passau and Regensburg look back on four successful days as host universities. At the semi-final in Passau, two teams from each of the eight participating universities qualified. During the Danube Cup, the prospective founders used the opportunity to fine-tune their presentations once again and thus enter the final sprint. With their pitches in front of top-class juries, one team per university qualified for the finals, which were then held in Regensburg.
But in addition to the competition, the networking idea was also important. The teams got to know the charm of both Bavarian cities on the Danube during rallies and city tours and heard interesting key notes from experienced founders. For the young students, the exchange with like-minded not only ment an expanded stage, but also international networking for their start-up ideas.
"Both the exchange with Southeast Europe and the exchange in the field of are rather underrepresented in international university cooperation. The Danube Cup is a commendable exception and brings both together. It shows what university exchange with Eastern Europe can look like in the future: modern and creative, characterised by student teams that deal with highly topical issues," says Nikolas Djukić, managing director of the Bavarian University Centre for Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (BAYHOST), which, among other things, promotes student mobility between Bavarian universities and universities in Eastern Europe.
Next port of call in 2024: Linz
Next year Linz will host the Danube Cup, bringing the pitch competition to Austrian shores. In addition to the Johannes Kepler University, the University of Passau, OTH Regensburg and the University of Regensburg, as well as the the initiators of the competition - Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Corvinus University Budapest - the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and the University of Belgrade will once again be on board as cooperating universities.
What the universities along the Danube have in common is not only their geographical location, but above all the desire for cooperation in the field of entrepreneurship. The aim of the pitch competition is to build an international and sustainable network between the universities along the Danube.