The Technology Award

For the eleventh time, Handelsblatt and McKinsey award The Spark – The Technology Award to exceptional and innovative start-ups whose ideas have the potential to fundamentally and sustainably change markets.

Jury

The high-profile jury selected the winners of The Spark 2026 based on their expertise.
The experts in 2026 are:

DR. FABIAN BILLING

Managing Partner Germany McKinsey & Company

SEBASTIAN MATTHES

Chief Editor Handelsblatt

SABINE BENDIEK

Senior Advisor for Private Equity and Venture Capital; Member of the Supervisory Board

PROF. DR. VERONIKA GRIMM

Professor at the Technical University of Nuremberg (UTN) and Head of the Energy Systems and Market Design Lab and member of the German Council of Economic Experts

PROF. DR. MALTE BRETTEL

Professor and Head of Group Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group (WIN) – Center for Entrepreneurship
RWTH Aachen

DANIEL SCHALL

Co-Founder and CEO Black Semiconductor

ELKE REICHART

Chief Digital and Sustainability Officer Infineon Technologies AG

SABINE SCHEUNERT

Managing Director Eurocentral Dassault Systèmes

DR. ELISABETH SCHREY

Managing Director DeepTech & Climate Fonds Management GmbH

THOMAS OEHL

General Partner Vsquared Ventures

(c) Marc-Steffen Unger

PRE-JURY COMMITEE

External topic experts, the Handelsblatt editorial team and a representative from McKinsey evaluate the applications after the end of the application phase. Taking into account the specific The Spark evaluation criteria, the 10 finalists of the award are determined by the nomination committee.

The experts on the 2026 pre-jury committee are: