Over the past 5 years, Hackquarters has partnered with MediaMarkt for the MediaMarkt Startup Challenge to pave the way for retailtech and revolutionize the retail landscape. Hackquarters is excited to announce that applications are open for the 2023 edition. If you're a startup looking to make your mark in the retail tech industry, this is the platform you've been waiting for.

The MediaMarkt Startup Challenge: A Vision for the Future

MediaMarkt Startup Challenge brings together entrepreneurs who are shaping retail technologies of the future today. The Program aims to enrich the customer experience, endeavoring to boost the most innovative solutions and ideas in the retail sector.

MediaMarkt Startup Challenge provides countless opportunities to Retailtech startups in various verticals to pilot their products in MediaMarkt stores in Turkey, cloud credits, mentorship support from Google experts, and other prizes from the Partners.

What We're Looking For in 2023

MediaMarkt's vision this year revolves around four principal areas of interest: Shopping Experience, Usage Experience, Employee Experience, and Social and Environmental Impact Experience. We are waiting for innovative ideas and practices to make a difference in the future retail experience.

Retail Sales Technologies

We seek startups offering an integrated omnichannel experience, transforming the decision-making process for online and in-store customers, providing a seamless technological journey.

After-Sales Technologies

We're interested in all initiatives and solutions focused on guaranteeing the satisfaction of the customers who have completed the purchasing process, ensuring they have a consistent experience in our store for subsequent choices.

Empowering Employee Experience through Corporate Digitalization

We're looking for innovations that enhance employee satisfaction by focusing on their happiness and well-being, empowering them to offer superior services and solutions that streamline their work processes.

Sustainability and Environmental Impact Solutions

We seek startups prioritizing sustainability and social benefits, focusing on initiatives that ensure long-term positive impacts on the community and environment in the retail sector.

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Applications are now open until 7 October 2023. Apply on our website!

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Reflecting on Our Journey: Highlights from Past Editions

As we prepare for an exciting 2023, let's take a look at some of our past accomplishments:

2018

The first year of the MediaMarkt Startup Challenge. 11 startups were selected to present their ideas at the Chain Stores Association Conference and a PoC opportunity with MediaMarkt and Tekzen. The winners were;

BuyBuddy from Turkey, (first place), a Retailtech startup producing smart tags for physical stores; 

Udentify from Turkey, (second place), a business intelligence solution aiming to create better solutions for manmade market research techniques by using face recognition and body tracking; 

Pacer from Turkey, (third place), a multi-award-winning new generation social learning platform built to manage and maximize corporate learning engagement. 

2019

In 2019, three winners from the 11 selected startups were; 

Bagaj from Turkey, (first place), a locker service that can be used via a mobile phone app; 

Poltio from Turkey, (second place), which helps brands access, engage with, and learn from their users with the help of interactive content;  

Pegneon from Greece, (third place) is a serious games company specializing in educational video games for employee training. Between 2018-19, 165+ startup applications were received from various verticals, including retail sales tech, corporate digitization process, and post-sales tech.

2020

In 2020, we strived to turn the pandemic into an opportunity and received more than 150 applications from 39 countries. 11 startups were chosen to pitch their ideas to the jury, and the 3 startups that got the chance to partner with MediaMarkt in 2020 were;

Shopi, from Turkye, a SaaS-based, all-in-one omnichannel retail store operations platform with an order management system in place; 

Yosh.AI, from Poland, a deep tech company that automates the communication between enterprises and users with AI voice text assistants; 

B2Metric, from Turkey, is an AI-native predictive analytics solution that automates the machine learning pipeline for the company’s customer journey, price, and purchase optimization.

2021

In 2021, the interest in the program was even stronger: 208 startups from 46 countries applied to the program. 11 startups took the stage during the challenge. The winners of the 2021 batch are:

Optiyol: Optiyol, from Turkey, is a B2B Software solution that helps retailers and carriers with end-to-end logistics optimization, from planning with advanced algorithms to execution with a driver app. Optiyol reduces fuel costs by 15-20%, fleet size by 5-10%, and improves on-time performance by 30%.

MoEngage: MoEngage, from Germany, is an intelligent customer engagement platform for the customer-obsessed marketer. They help you delight your customers and retain them for longer. With MoEngage, you can analyze customer behavior and engage them with personalized communication across the web, mobile, and email. MoEngage is a full-stack solution consisting of powerful customer analytics, AI-powered customer journey orchestration, and personalization - in one dashboard.

Qumpara: Qumpara, from Turkey, is a mobile app that rewards shoppers by snapping a photo of their receipt. That's how we activate promotion and loyalty offers to shoppers, build one one-on-one relationships in a personalized manner, and leverage technology to solve the data and communication gap between the consumers' brands and shoppers.

2022:

Last year,  the interest in the program was even stronger: 205 startups from 51 countries were screened for the program. 10 startups took the stage during the challenge. The winners of the 2022 are:

Oriient: Indoor Positioning without beacons and WiFi and installing anything in the building and power smart retail, smart buildings, IoT, and AR applications

Varsapp: From Turkey, Platform where people can safely rent daily items from users and companies

Vouchery.io: From Poland, Promo automation platform that gives marketers the AI tools they need to scale their promotional strategy.

Watch last year's case video on YouTube.

The MediaMarkt Startup Challenge 2023 is not just another competition; it's a catalyst for change in Retailtech. Join this exciting journey, and let's redefine retail together. Visit Website!