Berlin, 25.06.2024. Likeminded, a digital platform for providing services to strengthen mental health in companies, is the winner of the HR Startup Award 2024. The young company beat the start-ups Flip and Empion in a pitch in front of the audience at the HR Management Congress of the Federal Association of Personnel Managers (BPM) in Berlin. The three companies had previously qualified as finalists in a tough selection process by the award jury. 

In the ninth year of the HR Start-up Award, the jury received a record number of 61 applications from start-ups in the HR tech sector. The award jury, headed by the two initiators Professor Dr Elke Eller and Michael H. Kramarsch, also included investors Jens Bender (HR Angels Club), Thomas Otter (Acadian Ventures) and Michala Rudorfer (Rose-Sky Investments) for the first time.

 

The 2024 award winner: Likeminded
Likeminded provides companies with mental health solutions for their employees. The digital platform offers users a wide range of services, from one-to-one sessions to groups and on-demand formats, delivered by trained psychotherapists, psychologists and coaches. Thanks to data-based matching algorithms, employees receive personalised recommendations and thus the best possible individual support. 

Kimberly Breuer, Co-Founder & CEO of Likeminded, sees the award win and the previous assessment by the award jury as confirmation of her commitment to the mental fitness of employees and corresponding offers by employers. "The HR Startup Award will help us as a company, not least because it also focuses on aspects of mental health. Their visibility is still far from being commensurate with their actual significance as a cause of illness. Employers are therefore well advised to develop appropriate offers and make them available anonymously in a democratised process," says the founder. She is convinced that HR has a decisive role to play here.

Special prize from the jury for Onuava
After 2023, the jury once again awarded a special prize, which this year went to Onuava - an online fertility platform that companies can use to support employees on their individual path to having their dream child.
"With infertility, family planning and dealing with the desire to have children, Onuava addresses important issues of individual life with enormous significance for both the economy and society. This is why the jury has once again decided to award a special prize,"  Michael H. Kramarsch explains, he is Co-Chair of the award jury. "Onuava is helping to break this taboo by offering fertility services and thus integrating the topic of the desire to have children into the corporate agenda. This enables companies to proactively offer solutions and promote an open discussion."

HR Startup Award gains in prestige
The ninth round of the HR Start-up Award once again emphasises the increasing importance of technology-based applications in HR management. "Modern HR management is not possible without HR tech. At the same time, HR tech offers the opportunity to give the individual in companies a greater voice and more room for manoeuvre," emphasises Michael H. Kramarsch. This is reflected in the current applications as well as in the applications for the HR Startup Award. "We are delighted with the record number of applications, which address many new topics but also cover an unprecedented variety of solutions," adds Professor Dr Elke Eller, Co-Chair of the HR Start-up Award jury. 

And Inga Dransfeld-Haase, jury member, President of BPM and Board Member for Labour & Social Affairs at BP Europe, emphasises: "The HR Start-up Award is an integral part of the HR Management Congress, as is the topic of HR tech, i.e. the use of modern technologies in HR management."

About the HR Start-up Award
The HR Start-up Award has been presented annually at the HR Management Congress in Berlin since 2016. It is organised by the Federal Association of Personnel Managers (BPM), the hkp///group, Human Resources Manager Magazin and Quadriga University. The aim is to bring the innovations of start-ups to the HR community, to learn from each other, to shape the (HR) work of the future together - and thus to ensure economic sustainability in disruptive times. 

In 2024, seven of the 61 applications came from abroad for the first time. A broader distribution of content is also recognisable. The top topics include HR Marketing & Recruiting (19 applications) and Compensation & Benefits (10). Eight applications - and therefore significantly more than in previous years - came from the area of HR & people analytics. As expected, many solutions promise to utilise AI technology.

The winners of the award will receive an advertising budget worth 5,000 euros. The top 3 start-ups will receive coaching from one of the jury members in addition to various opportunities for presentations, networking and publishing content. In addition, the start-ups that make it into the top ten will receive a certificate for their pitch decks.

The members of the award jury

  • Jens Bender, Initiator of the HR Angels Club, Founder & Managing Director of WorkTech Advisory
  • Dennis Blöcher, Senior Vice President HR, Head of Global CoEs, STIHL
  • Inga Dransfeld-Haase, President of the Federal Association of HR Managers (BPM) and Board Member for Labour and Social Affairs, BP Europa SE
  • Prof. Dr Elke Eller, supervisory board member, investor and honorary professor for strategic HR management at Worms University of Applied Sciences (co-chair of the jury)
  • Prof Dr Christian Gärtner, Professor of Business Administration, Munich University of Applied Sciences
  • Anna Kaiser, Vice President EMEA, Phenom, and former founder & CEO of Tandemploy
  • Michael H. Kramarsch, Founder, Investor and Managing Partner hkp///group (Co-Chair of the jury)
  • Åsa Lautenberg, Chief People Officer (CPO), Wittur Group
  • Dr Thomas Otter, General Partner, Acadian Ventures
  • Erika Rasch, Head of People and Culture, Bosch Mobility Solutions
  • Michala Rudorfer, Investor, Member of the Supervisory Board and Co-Founder of encourageventures e.V.
  • Marie-Eve Schröder, GCA Global Customers and Agencies EMEA Regional Director, Meta
  • Dr Jochen Wallisch, Executive Vice President HR, Siemens

Contact Thomas Müller, Mobile: +49 176 100 88 237, E-Mail: thomas.mueller@hkp.com

 

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