The Rising Stars Award provides an annual spotlight on German American startups. It is free to enter, free to win and will be judged by VCs and industry peers. All finalists will be invited to the event and have the opportunity to pitch in front of the audience and a high profile jury. At the award ceremony, we will recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups, internet, and technology innovations of the year.
Awards: 
- Rising Star Award
- Audience Award
- Newcomer Award
Winners 2019
We would like to congratulate our Rising Stars and Audience Award winner Franka Emika and our Newcomer Winner ProGlove to becoming our Rising Stars winner. All finalists impressed the judges and it was not easy to find a winner!
Finalists
The Judges evaluation is complete and we are proud to announce this year’s Rising Stars finalists who will introduce themselves and their companies to compete for the Startup of the Year Award, Audience Award and Newcomer Award during our Rising Stars celebration.
Please meet our finalists!
Prizes
Prize 1 – Startup of the Year – worth USD 8,600
- 1 month of free desk space at our coworking location in SOMA/Embarcadero for the entire team (up to 6 team members) – worth USD 3,600
- 1 day of our academy room to host your own workshop – worth USD 1,000
- 2 seats in our Growth Hacking Workshop – worth USD 2,000
- 5 hours of one-on-one hands on growth hacking for your startup with a Senior Growth Hacker – worth USD 1,000
- 1 free event of 3 hrs hosted at our state of the art event space for up to 50 people – worth USD 975
Prize 2 – Newcomer Award – worth USD 6,400
- Two weeks of free desk space at our coworking location in SOMA/Embarcadero for the entire team (up to 6 team members) – worth USD 1,800
- 1 day of our academy room to host your own workshop – worth USD 1,000
- 1 seats in our Growth Hacking Workshop – worth USD 1,000
- 3 hours of one-on-one hands on growth hacking for your startup with a Senior Growth Hacker – worth USD 600
Prize 3 – Audience Award – worth USD 6,400
- Two weeks of free desk space at our coworking location in SOMA/Embarcadero for the entire team (up to 6 team members) – worth USD 1,800
- 1 day of our academy room to host your own workshop – worth USD 1,000
- 1 seats in our Growth Hacking Workshop – worth USD 1,000
- 3 hours of one-on-one hands on growth hacking for your startup with a Senior Growth Hacker – worth USD 600
Prize 1-3: Three hours of legal advice each
- Co-working space access for 3 weeks at UC Berkeley CITRIS Foundry Offices
- Access to CITRIS events during that time frame
- Introductions to relevant campus contacts, local accelerators, etc.
Prize 1-3: One month office space use at GACC
Requirements
- Less than 10 years in business
- German company with subsidiary in the US or US company founded by a German
- Successful can mean: name recognition, external funding, market success, substantial revenues, innovative/technology background
- Application deadline June 30th, 2019
The jury will consider all entries and select the most promising applicants to demo at the award event.
The Startup of the Year as well as the Newcomer Award will be chosen by the jury and the Audience Award will be determined by the event attendees in real time.