futureSAX is a company of the
Free State of Saxony
Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
and is financed with tax revenues based on the budget approved by the members of the
Saxon State Parliament. It aims to support start-ups and the founding of companies free of charge in a mission of the Free State of Saxony with various events, formats and grants.
Procedure
futureSAX is divided into three competition phases, in which the competing participants are aided under consultation in the development of their own business plans. During the course of the competition, the business ideas continually evolve; the participants profit from free
seminar
A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some part ...
programs{{citation needed, date=March 2008 and the opportunity to correspond with others in their industry as well as sponsors of the competition.
On the basis of a business or development idea (phase one), the production of a business and marketing strategy develops (phase two) and a detailed and professional business plan (phase three) is constructed. Each phase ends with a confidential evaluation of the practicality of the business ideas by independent juries.
The business plans that have the most judicial approval are awarded with prize money. For the first two award ceremonies, four teams are awarded - one team each per the industries of
technology
Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...
, ITK,
bio/
nano-technology, and
service
Service may refer to:
Activities
* Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty
* Civil service, the body of employees of a government
* Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...
. With the third award ceremony, five prizes in the three categories of “start-ups”, “growth”, and “special university prize” are awarded.
Apart from the phase's closing jury vote, the technical support is guaranteed to the competitors by sponsors, such as regularly offered coaching and seminar meetings about start-up relevant information.
Apart from the technical support with the development of business plans through futureSAX, the opportunity is granted to the competitors to establish contacts to financial sources such as
Venture Capitalists
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
, etc. at the futureSAX
networking seminars.
History
On 7 November 2002, futureSAX started as a Saxony industry competition for start-ups and recent growth
enterprises. Thus, it replaced the IT Business Plan Competition, which was exclusive for the
IT-industry that had existed since 1999 and was also presented by futureSAX.
Since 2002, more than 490 start-ups and entrepreneurs, as well as 10,000 participants in net-working meetings and workshops, have taken part in futureSAX. However, in the 2006 competition, 140 teams took part and 188 business ideas, marketing concepts, and business plans were submitted. During the years 2003 through 2005, the competition grew approximately 67 percent.
On October 5, 2006, futureSAX launched into its fifth open-industry competition, which ran until 18 July 2007. The total prize money amounted to 68,000
euro
The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...
s.
Since 2018, futureSAX is officially a start-up of the Saxon Free State. The shareholders of the new GmbH are the Free State of Saxony and the Saxony Economic Development Corporation (WFS).
External links
* http://www.futuresax.de
* http://www.sab.sachsen.de
Business organisations based in Germany