Five startups, one stage: Who will win the Smart Country Startup Award 2025?

Faster housing benefit applications, greater transparency in public tenders, more efficient youth welfare services, and better support for municipal climate protection – these are the areas targeted by the finalists of the Smart Country Startup Award 2025. Their solutions show how digital innovations can make everyday life easier for citizens while also making government and administration more future-proof. On October 1, they will compete against each other at the Smart Country Convention in Berlin.

The finalists at a glance

• Ark Climate: Ark Climate from Munich is digitizing municipal climate protection with AI-based software. The startup 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 startup GovIntel uses AI to evaluate contract award notices, budget data, meeting documents, and parliamentary debates. This provides clues about planned procurements, often six to twelve months before a tender is published. Companies can position their solutions in good time, and administrations can get to know suitable innovations before a narrow tender framework is established.

• HzE Portal: The HzE Portal aims to digitize child and youth welfare services. The Leverkusen-based startup 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 minimizes 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.

Relevance for the state and society

The finalists' solutions show that digitalization can make administration more efficient, relieve the burden on citizens, and better address social challenges. The Smart Country Convention brings startups and administration together, creating a space where ideas can become reality. The Smart Country Startup Award is organized by Get Started, the startup initiative of the digital association Bitkom, and supported by the state initiative Projekt Zukunft (Project Future) of the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy, and Public Enterprises and Deloitte.

Save the date: The pitch by the five finalists for the Smart Country Startup Award will take place on October 1 at 5:30 p.m. on the Plaza Stage at the Smart Country Convention.