The FFC Semifinals in Central Germany
A concentration of innovative energy under the open sky: On June 4, the Germany-wide Female Founders Contest brought the power of female founders to Leipzig. As part of the MACHN Festival, outstanding startups from Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia received exactly the stage, the attention, and the connections to investors that they deserve.
Networking in Nature and Bold Visions
The day began with an exclusive pre-lunch event to get to know one another and network. Then it was time to take the stage! Surrounded by greenery, five impressive female founders presented their visions at Speakers Corner to a wonderful audience.
Huge respect for the groundbreaking pitches and the tremendous entrepreneurial spirit of the female founders:
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Kerstin Broschell · SuccessionOne
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Sabine Völkel · PiAS Education
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Ulrike Winter-Bergmann · NinoNauten
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Katie Payne · OhMyV
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Simone Sabbione · meliodays
The sensation of the day: A well-deserved one-two finish!
Simone Sabbione was particularly successful that day with her startup Meliodays. Not only did she take the audience’s hearts by storm and win the Audience Choice Award with an impressive 43% of the votes, but she also won over the expert jury across the board.
With this spectacular double victory – winning both the jury prize and the audience award – Simone secured her spot in the grand FFC Germany Final on September 10, 2026, in Potsdam! Congratulations on this well-deserved success!
A Strong Network for Strong Female Founders
An event of this magnitude can only be made possible with dedicated partners. A huge thank you goes out to the MACHN Festival team for the fantastic open-air atmosphere, as well as to all the sponsors and supporters who strengthen the ecosystem and provide the teams with valuable prizes:
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OSTWERK (Sponsor of the €1,000 Jury Prize)
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Spirit Legal Leipzig (10 hours of free legal consultation for the winning team)
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MiiT (A personality test worth over 250 € & 1 month of coworking space)
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Blueberry Walnut (Pitch Deck Polishing for the Jury Prize)
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KRAVAG (Official logistics partner responsible for transporting all finalists to Potsdam)
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A big thank you also to Dealum (for the application platform), the Health + IT Campus, BAM! Business Angels Mitteldeutschland, SpinLab – The HHL Accelerator, and futureSAX.
Next Stop: Das große Finale in Potsdam!
👉 TICKETS[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
