TOP 100 seal 2023

The competition is based on a scientific selection process. On behalf of compamedia, the organizer of the comparison, innovation researcher Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and his team examined AITAD on the basis of more than 100 criteria from five categories: Innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success. Of particular importance is whether a company’s innovations are merely a product of chance or whether they are systematically planned and can therefore be repeated in the future (further information on the test criteria can be found at www.top100.de/pruefkriterien).

AITAD is one of the top innovators for the first time. The company is at home in the development of electronic components. The company has made a name for itself primarily in the field of intelligent sensor technology, i.e. the local, autonomous and real-time capable recording and AI-supported evaluation of data in machines, vehicles and other devices.

Embedded AI is still a very young field of application for artificial intelligence. AITAD develops and produces electronic components on which this AI works locally. These components can be used, for example, to make predictions about future damage to a production machine during operation. This can prevent unplanned machine breakdowns, which usually result in enormous costs due to production downtime. Other areas of application include the control of devices with the help of gestures and speech or the recognition of people, which in turn can prevent accidents in safety-relevant environments.

“Four and a half years of intensive work, not only on the technology, but also on the corporate values and culture, have paid off and brought us this award today,” says Viacheslaw Gromow, CEO and founder of AITAD.

AITAD works with an interdisciplinary team of software developers, data scientists, hardware developers and mechanical engineers and develops customer-specific AI solutions for predictive maintenance, user interaction and functional innovation. With its own development laboratory and prototyping EMS track, solutions can be developed, implemented and tested quickly. Rooted in Offenburg, at the gateway to the Black Forest, AITAD serves industrial and SME customers all over the world.

AITAD was founded in Offenburg at the end of 2018 and now employs around 20 people.

To ensure that all applicants have an equal chance, the seal is awarded in three size categories: up to 50, 51 to 200 and more than 200 employees. In the anniversary year of TOP 100 – the current round is already the 30th edition of the innovation competition – interest was particularly high: 550 SMEs applied, 300 of them were successful and now bear the TOP 100 seal. A maximum of 100 companies per size category can be honored.

“TOP 100 is about the question of how important the innovation goal is in the company,” says Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke, Scientific Director of the competition. “Do routines and habits dominate or is the company able to question the status quo, think creatively and in new ways and successfully assert itself on the market? We analyze this ability on the basis of more than 100 test criteria,” he explains.

On June 23, all top innovators of the 2023 class will come together in Augsburg for the award ceremony at the German SME Summit. Ranga Yogeshwar will be there to personally congratulate them on their TOP 100 success.

TOP 100: the competition

Since 1993, compamedia has been awarding the TOP 100 seal for special innovative strength and above-average innovation success to medium-sized companies. The scientific management has been in the hands of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke since 2002. Franke is the founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. With 26 research awards and over 200 publications, he is one of the leading innovation researchers internationally. The mentor of TOP 100 is the science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar. Project partners are the Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research and the BVMW association of small and medium-sized enterprises. The magazines manager magazin and impulse accompany the company comparison as media partners, ZEIT für Unternehmer is a cooperation partner. More information and registration at www.top100.de (in german)