Students win the H-BRS Start-up Cup with software for craft businesses

20261015_H-BRS_Start-Up Cup Finale_nathandreessen_fünf_Finalteams

The jury and guests were in agreement: Werkvora, a digital operating platform for craft businesses, is the best start-up idea. Jonas Lodin, Anas Majout, Mohammed El-Hadouchi, Ibrahim Najib and Yassine Azza can therefore celebrate winning both the first prize and the audience award at the Start-up Cup organised by Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS). Second and third place went to a software solution for analysing development processes and the use of AI in technical recruitment, and an AI nutrition assistant.

20261015_H-BRS_Start-Up Cup Finale_nathandreessen_Team Werkvora

The Werkvora team took first place at the 2026 Start-up Cup with their idea for a digital operational platform for craft businesses, and also won the audience award. Photo: Nathan Dreessen

Five teams in the final

Five out of around 30 teams had qualified for the final of the university’s internal ideas competition for start-up founders. They were then given five minutes to convince the jury and the audience of nearly 70 people of the merits of their business idea – including answering critical questions about their business model, target audience or competitive landscape. “I was particularly impressed by the diversity of the ideas. The five finalist teams have shown just how much start-up potential there is at H-BRS – and how varied the paths can be when turning a good idea into a concrete solution. I am delighted that, as the university’s alumni association, we can help to foster this entrepreneurial spirit and support the journey from idea to implementation,” says jury member Professor Dr Ralf Meyer. The winning team, Werkvora – comprising students of Business Informatics and Computer Science at H-BRS – will receive 1,000 euros from the University Society to further develop its software for craft businesses, which integrates various systems for quotations, orders, documentation and invoices. “The software adapts to the business,” emphasised the young founders in their pitch.

A total of five teams had reached the Start-up Cup final. Photo: Nathan Dreessen

Alumnus Jan Philipp Geyer came second in the Start-up Cup with his idea for the Codie platform, which shows how developers actually solve technical case studies during the recruitment process. Third place went to Tobias Dinspel, Nils Vogt, Hendrik Oude Hengel and Lara Hoch with their AI nutrition assistant Nori, which automatically creates weekly meal plans and shopping lists and adapts recipes. The H-BRS students came up with the idea for Nori during the ‘Start-up/Business Concept’ course and then developed it further. The university’s own Centre for Entrepreneurship Innovation and SMEs (CENTIM) is now supporting these two start-up ideas with grants of 750 and 500 euros respectively.

Three further teams win special prizes

In addition, the Praxura and Lumi teams can look forward to two special prizes from Digital Hub Bonn, whilst the Neptune team has won the Impact Special Prize and the associated wildcard for the Impact Pitch Night at Digital Hub. The jury comprised internal and external start-up experts.

“Just give ideas a go”

The start-up centre at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, the Start-up Manufaktur, organised the 2026 competition for the sixth time. “The Start-up Cup is always the highlight of our Start-up Manufaktur year,” say Start-up Manufaktur project manager Karoline Noth and start-up coach Lea Bockem. “By making it easy to get involved, we want to encourage students and university staff to simply give their ideas a go, develop them further and take their first steps towards setting up a business. It’s particularly rewarding to see how the teams develop in the run-up to the final and how confident and professional they are on stage. It is precisely this courage that we want to instil in them as they continue on their entrepreneurial journey.”