Strong teams in northern Bavaria

A strong middle class, successful start-up companies, incubators and bright minds: Franconia and the Upper Palatinate regularly convince our jury with exciting new technologies and business concepts. Join the ranks of names such as Scoutbee, iNDTact, va-Q-tec or sunhill technologies and take advantage of the opportunity to lead your company to success with the competition!

Future-oriented concepts

Since 1998, the Business Plan Competition Northern Bavaria is the first startup competition in Germany aiming specifically at founders in the region so that they can successfully establish their businesses. Startups from Franconia and the Upper Palatinate have the chance to apply with their business concepts in three competition phases. Taking part is not just about cash prizes for the winners. All participants benefit from expert feedback, workshops and contacts to network partners.

Deadlines

The 2026 competition season starts in Mid-October.

13^th January 2026: Phase 1: Business idea and customer benefit
24^th March 2026: Phase 2: Marketing and sales
9^th June 2026: Phase 3: Team, roadmap and finance

Receive the latest updates from the Bavarian Business Plan Competitions via our German newsletter.

Apply now for phase 3

Information for participants

Find a detailed step-by-step-guide for the businessplan competition, information about the jury and the criteria they use to select the winners, conditions of participation and much more.

Learn more

Awards

The winners of each phase of the Bavarian business plan competitions are honored at award ceremonies. It’s the go-to event to immerse yourself in the northern Bavarian start-up scene, get to know the region's top startups and exchange ideas with innovative founders, experienced entrepreneurs and investors.

Winner 2025

ENDOLEASE, the spin-off from the University Hospital Würzburg is developing an implantable platform technology for the precise, localized release of medication directly into the arterial bloodstream. By targeting affected tissues and organs, systemic side effects are reduced and treatment efficacy significantly increased. ENDOLEASE thus offers promising new approaches for hard-to-treat conditions in cardiology, oncology, neurology, and transplant medicine.

BreatheAssist, from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and funded by the EXIST research transfer program, brings clear improvements to ventilation therapy: A patient-mounted measurement and control unit responds in real-time to every breathing impulse. For the first time, tube resistance is fully compensated. This enables “electronic extubation.” Patients can breathe spontaneously while awake, maintaining active respiratory muscles. The result: fewer lung injuries, shorter ventilation times, reduced need for sedation, and noticeable relief for hospital staff.

fiveD, from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, is developing a software platform for ultra-realistic radar simulations. Using physics-based modeling, radar systems can be developed faster and with greater precision – from hardware to AI-driven signal processing. This solution shortens development cycles, reduces costs, and increases performance in industries like automotive, aerospace, and industrial automation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Based on your postal code, you will be assigned to the Business Plan Competition Swabia or Ideenreich, the Munich Business Plan Competition or the Business Plan Competition Northern Bavaria when you register your team.

The competition is a platform on which you can test your concepts and improve them through feedback. So: yes, please submit your concept even if it is not perfect, yet.

You upload your concept in our protected web portal after a successful registration at www.baystartup.de. All our judges have signed an NDA and are bound to secrecy.

If we at BayStartUP communicate your solution externally (e.g. if we present your team as a winning team as part of our marketing activities), then only with content that you have approved in advance.

Feedback from experts, the chance to be included in the free BayStartUP financial coaching, media attention, prize money, support from the twelve digital incubators throughout Bavaria and our other partners in the network, information and updates from the Bavarian startup scene.

The page numbers of the chapters are guidelines, but they should by no means be exceeded. In terms of content, you should make sure that you address the main topics of the respective competition phase.

Tobias Bladowski via bladowski@baystartup.de

Contact

Head of Business Plan Competition Northern Bavaria

Tobias Bladowski

bladowski@baystartup.de
+49 (0) 179 39 79 539