Good practice:

Rheinland Pitch - Social Impact Special

Initiated in 2013, the Rhineland Pitch is now the largest start-up pitch competition in Germany. It offers young and innovative start-ups a stage to present their business idea to potential investors, companies, start-ups and interested parties. Up to five start-ups present themselves in a five-minute pitch and then have to answer questions from the expert jury and the audience. The best start-up is chosen by the audience.

With the social impact special, the Rheinland-Pitch offers a platform for impact start-ups specifically. The pitch is open to impact start-ups in all business phases. A week before the public Rhineland Pitch event, there is a “pre-pitch” with all impact start-ups that have applied. There, start-ups receive professional pitch training; a special jury decides which start-ups from the pool of applicants will ultimately be on the stage at the Rhineland Pitch.
The Rheinland Pitch has a number of business partners from different areas, e.g. HDI Insurance, Telekom Techboost, Vodafone uplift, KMPG, etc. Additionally, it is supported by public partners such as 2 Digihubs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the city of Düsseldorf, and the Chambers of Commerce Cologne and Düsseldorf.
The Rheinland Pitch – Social Impact Special offers impact start-ups a stage and brings them in contact with possible investors. Moreover, since the event is open to the public, it also raises awareness of social entrepreneurship.

While there are employees from Startplatz who are organising the application phase, the pre-event and the event, there is a big group of volunteers who are helping implement the event itself.

Biggest start-up pitch competition in Germany with a top-class audience. The Social Impact Special offers social start-ups the opportunity to present their ideas to a large audience in a low-threshold manner. So far, more than 100 Rheinland-Pitches have been organised with more than 500 start-ups having benefitted from the pitch training and the presentation in front of a big audience of potential investors, policy makers and the public.

Easily transferable format that puts start-ups in contact with investors, new partners, co-founders and customers. Publicly accessible and attractively designed event that introduces the concept of ‘social enterprise’ to a wider audience. The event is organised by STARTPLATZ, a Startup-Incubator, accelerator and co-working space with locations in Cologne and Düsseldorf.