Whether it's AI for municipal climate protection, a digital one-stop shop for social services or easier access to innovations in public tenders – these are just some of the solutions with which the finalists hope to impress the jury and audience at the Smart Country Startup Award 2025. The five startups will present their solutions for the digital state at the Smart Country Convention (SCCON) in Berlin on 1 October. The Smart Country Startup Award is organised by Get Started, the startup initiative of the digital association Bitkom, and is supported by the state initiative Projekt Zukunft (Project Future) of the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises and Deloitte. ‘With the Smart Country Startup Award, we are bringing the best ideas for modernising government and administration to the stage,’ says Daniel Breitinger, Head of Startups and Scaleups at Bitkom. ‘All finalists offer solutions that administrations and citizens can benefit from immediately. The Smart Country Convention is the ideal place to bring together innovative start-ups and decision-makers in local, state and federal government.’

The finalists for the Smart Country Startup Award are:

• Ark Climate: Ark Climate from Munich is digitising municipal climate protection with AI-based software. The start-up has developed a platform that supports municipal climate protection departments in all their tasks – from measuring energy and emissions data to planning and implementing concrete measures to communicating with and involving citizens.

• GovIntel: The Berlin-based start-up GovIntel uses AI to evaluate contract award notices, budget data, meeting documents and parliamentary debates. This provides information about planned procurements, often six to twelve months before a tender is published. Companies can position their solutions in good time and administrations can learn about suitable innovations before a narrow tender framework is established.

• HzE-Portal: The HzE-Portal aims to digitise child and youth welfare services. The Leverkusen-based start-up supports youth welfare offices and independent agencies in finding suitable places more quickly and planning occupancy efficiently. Data protection-compliant processes and intelligent evaluations facilitate strategic youth welfare planning so that young people can get the help they need more quickly.

• Leistungslotse: Leistungslotse from Berlin is developing a one-stop shop for social benefits. The application guides users through the application process in an understandable way and minimises incorrect or incomplete documents. This reduces administrative effort and makes it easier for citizens to access benefits such as housing allowance or basic income support.

• Lexaru: In Munich, Lexaru is developing an application designed to relieve the burden on immigration authorities. AI takes over the checking of documents, extracts data and creates comprehensible, legally compliant decisions. Applicants receive a response more quickly, while the authorities have fewer correction loops to process.

All information about the Smart Country Startup Award can be found here.

The pitch by the six finalists for the Smart Country Startup Award will take place on 1 October at 5:30 p.m.

Tickets for the Smart Country Convention are available free of charge in the online ticket shop.

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