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INFORMATION FOR APPLICANTS 2019

WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOUNEW REALITIES - FUTURE OF WORK, FUTURE OF LIFE

Handelsblatt and McKinsey award top innovators and bring them together with renowned business leaders.

The Spark provides drivers of the digital revolution with the chance to present themselves on the big stage.

The perfect award for startups, whose ideas have the potential to cause ground-breaking changes within the

industry. You will not only have the chance to present your ideas to a prominent jury and high-caliber guests, but also

get in touch with other proponents of the digital revolution.

This year we focus on concepts within the field of new realities, which focus on humans, their work and their daily environment: from virtual and augmented reality to voice and gesture control as well as innovative and virtual

training solutions. Business ideas which offer an innovative, scalable concept and have already been successfully

tested in a business context.

Our evaluation criteria:

FIND OUT WHAT THE SPARK OFFERS… on the following pages.

September 30th

jury session

November 21st

award ceremony

April 1st until

June 30th 2019

application

period

YOUR BENEFITSAS THE SPARK FINALIST

Presentation on

the-spark.de

Finalist ad

in Handelsblatt

Coaching for the

jury session

Press coverage of

The Spark – The

German Digital

Award

Finalist icon

for own

marketing effortsPresentation of your

business idea at the

award ceremony in front

of 300 high-caliber

decision makers

Integration at an

exclusive McKinsey

Conference with

more than 1.000

guests.

Personal contact and

exchange with this

year‘s experts of The Spark Jury

Presentation at The Spark

Roadshow

Networking with

The Spark Alumni

YOUR BENEFITSAS THE SPARK WINNER

Animated clip featuring the

winner company

Eye-catching congratulation

ad in the Handelsblatt

Trophy – The Spark

Recognition at the award

ceremony in front of

300 high-caliber guests

Winner icon for own

marketing efforts

SELECTION PANELNOMINATION COMMITTEE 2019

In the nomination stage the applications are evaluated by external subject experts, the Handelsblatt editorial team

and a representative of McKinsey. Our three evaluation criteria also form the basis of the evaluation at this stage.

At the end of the nomination, the ten finalists for The Spark 2019 are determined.

The experts for the nomination in 2019 are:

ANDREA REXERHANDELSBLATT - Head of department company &

markets

NIKO MOHR Partner atMcKinsey

ALOIS KNOLLDirector of the An-Institut of the Technischen Universität Fortiss GmbH and of the Graduate

School of Information Science in Health (GSISH)

MICHAEL DOWLINGProfessor for Innovation and Technology Management,

University of Regensburg and Chairman of the Board of the

Münchener Kreis

ULI ERXLEBEN Founder

SMACC & Hypatos

SELECTION PANELTHE JURY 2019

All finalists will be invited to the jury session in Düsseldorf on September 30th. There, the finalists personally present their

innovation to the jury members and are judged by them on the basis of the evaluation criteria.

CHRISTIAN SCHLÖGELChief Digital Officer

Körber

SVEN AFHÜPPEEditor-in-chief

Handelsblatt

CORNELIUS BAURHead of

McKinsey Germany

ANN-KRISTIN ACHLEITNERScientific Director of the Center

for Entrepreneurial and

Financial Studies (CEFS), TUM

FREDERIK BRANTNERCEO Magazino

Winner of The Spark 2018

REINHOLD ACHATZChief Technology Officer and

Head of Corporate Function

Technology, Innovation &

Sustainability thyssenkrupp AG

MARKUS SONTHEIMERCIO/CDO and Member of the

Board of Management

Schenker AG

MARTIN HOFMANNGroup CIO

Volkswagen AG

MEGUMI IKEDAManaging Director Hearst

Ventures & General Manager

Hearst Ventures Europe

ALENA KRETZBERGHead of Group Digital

Transformation & Strategy

Commerzbank AG

CHRISTINA REUTERMember of the supervisory board

KION Group AG

AWARD CEREMONY 2019

On November 21st, the winners will be announced at the glamorous award ceremony in Berlin in front of a knowledgeable audience of decision makers from business, media and politics. In addition to the winners, the finalists,

as well as relevant new realities topics will be presented on stage.

FOCUS ON NEW REALITIES

November 21st

BERLINStation Berlin

THE SPARK 2018

REVIEW

10 FASCINATING FINALISTS

„A great opportunity to

present ourselves to

such a high-class jury.“

Ekaterina Grib

Co-Founder KEWAZO

and finalist of The Spark 2018

FAIRFLEET KEWAZO MEDINEERING METRALABS

QUANTUM SYSTEMS REACTIVE ROBOTICS VINCENT SYSTEMSMICROPSI

INDUSTRIES

MAGAZINOENWAY

1 HIGH-QUALITY JURY SESSION

3 OUTSTANDING WINNERS

„The Spark enables us to follow up with the next round of financing!“

Florian Seibel – CEO Quantum Systems and winner of The Spark 2018

VINCENT SYSTEMS QUANTUM-SYSTEMSMAGAZINO

1 AWARD CEREMONY WITH 300 GUESTS

APPLY NOW

Apply now and complete our online form until the 30th of June, you can find it on the-spark.de. The application will not take more than 10-12 minutes.

Conditions of Participation:

Those eligible to participate are young companies from the DACH region (Germany, Austria & Switzerland), which have established business

models on the market, and which employ the potential of “New realities – future of work, future of life”. The innovation should fulfill the three

evaluation criteria of disruptiveness, scalability and impact. The number of employees in the company may not exceed 500.

The nomination as a finalist will involve the personal participation of a member of your management at the jury session on September 30th,

including a pre-coaching from an expert and the participation at the award ceremony on November 21st.

Applicants who are not able to attend in person will be disqualified.

NEW REALITIES - FUTURE OF WORK, FUTURE OF LIFE

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR APPLICATION

SUCCESS-STORIES LATEST SUCCESS STORIES OF PREVIOUS THE SPARK WINNERS AND FINALISTS

relayr, The Spark winner 2016In September 2018, the company,

valued at USD 300 million, was

acquired by Munich Re.

KONUX, The Spark winner 2016In February 2019, KONUX raised further USD 13 million

in an extension of its Series B financing round,

bringing the total amount raised in its Series B

financing round to USD 33 million.

Octimine, The Spark finalist 2017In November 2018 the innovative provider of

semantic patent search services was acquired by

Dennemeyer Group.

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Your contact for questions

Antonia Kummer

project lead Handelsblatt

telephone 0211 8 87-1769 | e-Mail a.kummer@handelsblattgroup.com