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C3 - Campus Competition Cologne

Your path to the Gateway Accelerator and investment offers totalling €300,000!

CONNECT. COMPETE. CONVINCE.

This is what the C3 Competition offers:

Access to the Gateway Accelerator: The top eight teams will participate in the Gateway Accelerator. This gives you the opportunity to further scale and grow your business.
Financial Support: In the case of C3, investment offers of EUR 300,000 will also be made by Campus Capital (subject to a due diligence review).
Networking: By working with our mentors, participants have the opportunity to make contacts with other entrepreneurs, other mentors and industry experts, form partnerships and exchange experiences.
Expertise and Feedback: The participants receive insightful observations and constructive feedback on their business models and plans following the evaluation of submissions by an experienced jury and the start-up coaches of the Gateway Universities.
Pitch Training: Before the big event, the eight finalists will go through pitch training. This is an excellent chance to improve presentation abilities and make sure that participants can articulate their business ideas clearly.

Application

The application phase for the C3 Competition 2025 is now closed.

Campus Competition Cologne - C3 Final 2025

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Who is a good fit for the Gateway C3?

You can apply as an individual founder or with your team.

Participation Requirements

- No turnover or foundation of a corporation before 18 November 2023
- No raising of venture capital before 18 May 2025
- At least one person from the team must be a student, researcher, employee or graduate of the universities with a Gateway start-up service. In addition to the University of Cologne, these are the TH Köln, the Rheinische Fachhochschule Köln, the Deutsche Sporthochschule and the CBS International Business School

When does it start?

The application phase starts on 01 April 2025 and ends on 18 May 2025.

What will be assessed?

Idea, innovation and business model
Scaling and growth potential
Market and competition
Team
Chances of success Next steps
Impression in the feedback meeting

A maximum of 8 teams will be given the opportunity to take part in the final event.

How can I/we apply?

Fill out the application form and upload your complete documents (incl. Read Deck and logo).
Information on the structure of the Read Deck and a fact sheet with all relevant information can be found under ‘Documents’ at the top of this page.

If you have any problems, please contact us at: c3@gateway-unikoeln.de

We will contact you as soon as we have reviewed all applications after the deadline on 18 May 2025.

What is Campus Capital?

Campus Capital aims to transform cutting-edge research into successful companies and future hidden champions. Campus Capital is a specialised fund that invests in excellent university spin-offs at the earliest stage of their development.

Investment offers by Campus Capital within the C3 can be made to one final team (in the amount of 300,000 euros), two final teams (in the amount of 200,000 and 100,000 euros or 2x150,000 euros, for example) or three final teams (in the amount of 3x100,000 euros, for example).

To the Gateway Accelerator
The Accelerator #Batch 5 starts with a kick-off on 24 July 2025 with the 8 finalists of the C3 Campus Competition Cologne. The programme lasts 4 months and ends at the beginning of November. You can find more information here.