kint Placed Top 4 at start2grow 2025
168 teams applied. 101 business plans submitted. 20 finalists pitched. We made the Top 10.
Jozef Mikyta
Key Takeaways
- Top 10 out of 168 teams at start2grow 2025/26
- Jury of investors and industry experts validated the market need for accessible optimization
- The pitch that landed: optimization is everywhere, but building it yourself costs years
- Jury feedback: the hardest part won't be the tech, it'll be explaining what you do
Last Friday, kint was named one of the Top 10 startups at start2grow 2025/26. Didn't see that coming, honestly.
start2grow is one of Germany's longest-running startup competitions, organized by Wirtschaftsförderung Dortmund. This year was their 25th edition. 168 teams applied, 101 submitted full business plans, and 20 finalists pitched live at Sparkasse Dortmund on March 6. The jury was a mix of investors, founders, and industry experts.
168
teams applied
101
business plans submitted
20
finalists pitched live
€94k
total prize money
What We Pitched
We kept it simple. Companies lose 15 to 30 percent on logistics, scheduling, and resource allocation because their tools can't handle the math. Excel breaks down. Gut feeling gets expensive. Building a proper optimization engine in-house takes years and a team most companies can't hire.
kint solves that. We combine AI with mathematical optimization so companies can describe their problem in plain language and get provably optimal solutions back. No PhD required on their end.
What the Jury Told Us
The jury's main point was honest and direct: the biggest challenge won't be building the product. It'll be explaining what you do. Optimization is abstract. Most people don't know they have an optimization problem until you spell it out for them.
Fair enough. That's something we think about a lot. The technology works. Getting it across in thirty seconds to someone who's never heard of mixed-integer programming is a different kind of problem entirely.
We submitted kint back in January, pitched in Dortmund last week, and somehow convinced a jury of investors and industry experts that making optimization accessible is worth betting on.
What This Changes
Nothing dramatic. We're a small team, we're early, and there's a lot left to build. But it's good when someone outside your own bubble looks at what you're doing and says: yeah, this makes sense.
Big thanks to the start2grow team for running this. Congrats to Spree Monitoring for taking first place, and to cargovibe and wailand for second and third. Strong ideas across the board.
Back to work.
