Münich, July 27th, 2011

During the award ceremony, Bavarian Minister of Economics, Martin Zeil, emphasized: “Today’s Hightech-Founders will be tomorrow’s market leaders and growth drivers. Innovative Companies increase above-average production and employment”. To this aim, the Bavarian Ministry of Economics supports high-tech founders through a large variety of measures. Key element is the business plan competition and evobis as organizer and central platform for company formations, finance and growth in the Munich and southern Bavarian region.

Dr. Otto Beierl, Member of the board of the LfA Förderbank in Bavaria added: “A good business plan is the ideal spring board to a successful self-employment. With 85% of the evaluated business plans being especially innovative ventures, I am more than confident that a lot of participants will be able to compete successfully in the market place”. Crucially important for many founders is the financing of their idea. Therefore, LfA helps about 1600 founders every year with cheap start-up loans and equity participations.

The winners of the 2011 Munich Business Plan Competition were awarded in Munich yesterday. For the 15th anniversary of the annual competition since its inception, the founder scene proved again to be very active and creative. In the final Stage 3, 65 completed business plans were submitted. A total of 200 founder teams participated in the 3-staged 2011 Munich Business Plan Competition. In every stage, the participants receive detailed feedback from the expert jury members, allowing them to develop their project step by step and to optimally start up in the market. The three winners come from the industry segments E-commerce, plant engineering and nanotechnology. They received a total of 30,000 € combined. The award ceremony was organized by the LfA Förderbank Bavaria as a premium sponsor of the busines plan competition.

Dr. Carsten Rudolph expressed his deep satisfaction with the 15th business plan competition: “With 200 participating founder teams and an increase in the participations in Stage 3, we are looking back on a very successful year of competition”. Already during the competition, many participating teams could reach decisive milestones for their respective companies. “There will be a flow of good news in the next weeks, from both the winners and the ones who just missed the nomination”.

Predominant in the final Stage 3 of the competition were the sectors Software, Internet and Mobile, as well as Technologies (Mechanical Engineering, Cleantech, Electronics).

- Information and Communication Technology: 56%

- Life Science (Biotech & Medtech): 6%

- Technologies (Mechanical Engineering, Cleantech, Electronics): 23%

- Service and Others: 15%

The Munich Business Plan Competition is being carried out every year since 1996/1997. Since then, over 3500 founders and start-up teams have participated in the competition. Organizer of the competition is the evobis GmbH, that emanates from the from the prior MBPW GmbH and represents the central institution for company formations, financing and growth in Munich and southern Bavaria thanks to its broadened services.