Our very first joint and fully virtual New York & Silicon Valley German Startup Night is in the books. German Startup Night features pitches from best-in-class German startups that have completed the German Accelerator U.S. program. Attendees were provided with the opportunity to listen to the pitches of thriving high-potential German startups.

So far, German Startup Night has been a local event, happening in the cities of our respective office locations. Due to COVID-19, we shifted to an all-virtual program back in March. Since the event is an integral part of the German Accelerator experience, we made the shift to an online format as well, which allowed us to reach a broader audience across multiple time zones.

Following a quick introduction by German Accelerator Program CEOs Christian Busch (New York) and Andreas Hofmann (Silicon Valley), Silicon Valley Program Director, Keshia Theobald-van Gent took over the moderation and guided participants through the event. But first, she introduced our expert panel consisting of Jessica Cohen (Partech Partners), Christian Janson-Euterneck (Neue Capital Partners & #GAmentor), and David Segura (Angel Investor & #GAmentor).

Then it was time to pitch and seven of our companies took the virtual stage. German Startup Night New York & Silicon Valley featured pitches from the U.S. Class 2020-2:

• das boep develops, produces, and sells high-quality natural skincare products for babies and the whole family.
• MicroStream is a new data storage technology that is faster and easier to implement than other database systems.
• PAFnow enables state-of-the-art process mining to find actionable insights in minutes and drive corrective actions.
• rankingCoach enables small businesses to be successful online – even without a large marketing budget or expertise in online marketing.
• RESADO offers IoT endpoint cybersecurity solutions based on programmable logic providing best-in-class security.
• Smart City System deals with the digitization of parking lots with the help of sensors.
• SQIN (formerly BeQu) is a next-generation Beauty Tech company offering an augmented reality app to test beauty products.

One by one, they presented a sharp 3-minute pitch. After each presentation, they faced questions from the panelists, which provided additional insights into this outstanding group of startups.

Lastly, the audience was able to vote for the ‘Best Pitch Award.’ It was a close run, but in the end, Lorena Soto Casanova, International Business Development Lead at Smart City System, impressed attendees the most and was able to take the award home to Fürth, Bavaria. It’s truly amazing to watch everyone’s pitching skills and storyline evolve and improve over time.

With that, our very first joint and fully virtual German Startup Night New York & Silicon Valley was a wrap. We are thankful to everyone who joined us and applaud the U.S. Class 2020-2 for their continuous growth and success. We will keep cheering for all of them as they continue to thrive in Germany, in the U.S., and around the globe.

Curious for more? Tune into our virtual German Startup Night Singapore, spotlighting the startups from German Accelerator Southeast Asia and Next Step.