Three WHU Start-Ups in Sifted’s 100: DACH & CEE Ranking 2025

Three start-ups with roots at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management have made it onto this year’s highly regarded Sifted 100: DACH & CEE 2025 Ranking. According to the editors of Sifted, backed by the Financial Times, these start-ups are among the 100 fastest growing companies in Central and Eastern Europe.

“This is a great accolade for the founders of the start-ups heyData, Hopkins and Kalia Lab—and further proof of the entrepreneurial range of the WHU community,” says Professor Dries Faems, Chair of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technological Transformation.

These three award-winning companies have unique business models and, notably, they are largely foregoing external financial support and either using their own resources (“bootstrapping”) or only partially and selectively bringing early investors on board (“seedstrapping”).

heyData specializes in the rapidly growing area of data protection and compliance. The platform allows companies to implement compliance goals and legal data protection requirements in a scalable and automated manner while adhering to all relevant regulations. The start-up was co-founded by Miloš Djurdjević (BSc 2014) and Daniel Deutsch (MSc 2017).

Hopkins, co-founded by Simon Wolff (BSc 2015), aims to help consumers exercise their rights efficiently. With the help of artificial intelligence, the legal tech platform speeds up contract reviews and makes legal processes more accessible, thereby creating an innovative interface between the law and technology.

Kalia Lab operates a growing network of modern clinics for aesthetic medicine in Germany. The company is positioned in the health and wellness sector and focuses on maintaining healthy and young skin. The start-up was co-founded by Max Renneberg (Diplom 2008).

Sifted

Sifted is an outlet editorially supported by the Financial Times with a clear focus on the European start-up community. The publication sees itself as a critical sparring partner for that community and aims to empower founders and investors.