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The winners of the ATHENE Startup Award UP25@it-sa have been announced
The ATHENE Startup Award UP25@it-sa was presented on October 8, 2025, as part of the it-sa Expo&Congress in Nuremberg. The Freiburg-based company Infrafon prevailed against four other finalists in the live pitch and received prize money of €7,500 for its innovative solution for secure access control in regulated environments.
Infrafon presented credit card-sized smart badges with ePaper touchscreens, which were developed specifically for hospitals and other sensitive areas and enable secure access and access control. The jury praised the solution's high relevance to the healthcare sector and its sophisticated technical implementation. Second place went to Onekey from Düsseldorf with an AI-based platform for automated security analysis of networked devices, while NENNA.AI from Berlin took third place with its data protection-compliant infrastructure for secure AI use. The ATHENE Startup Award is an initiative of ATHENE, the national research center for applied cybersecurity, the Digital Hub Cybersecurity, StartUpSecure, the IT-Sicherheitscluster e.V., and it-sa.
Further information about the winners and the competition can be found in the official press release at: https://www.athene-center.de/aktuelles/presse/gewinner-up25it-sa
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