Published on
June 12, 2026
We are pleased to announce that MindPort has been awarded the regional "Ludwig" business prize in the category of Innovation.
The award, presented jointly by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Bonn/Rhein-Sieg and the Handwerkskammer (HWK), honors small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that demonstrate sustainable growth, economic resilience, and forward-looking business practices. Out of the nominees in the region, six companies were selected as laureates this year, with MindPort securing the award for technological innovation.
Named after Bonn’s historical figure Ludwig van Beethoven, the award serves to highlight the economic strength and creative potential of the regional business community. The evaluation covers several core operational areas, including company strategy, HR development, sustainability, and innovative capacity.
For MindPort, receiving the top placement in the Innovation category provides independent validation of our technical roadmap and our focus on making spatial computing highly accessible for commercial applications.
"Receiving the Ludwig Award for Innovation is a significant milestone for MindPort. Our objective has always been to reduce the entry barriers for XR development, allowing enterprises to deploy high-impact immersive training and simulations efficiently. This recognition from the IHK and HWK confirms that our region provides a strong foundation for sustainable deep tech development."
— David Lähner, Found & CEO of MindPort
Extended Reality continues to establish itself as a standard tool for corporate training, industrial simulation, and technical design. However, the integration of interactive VR and AR workflows has historically been constrained by high software engineering costs and specialized programming requirements.
MindPort addresses this challenge directly with VR Builder, our open-source toolkit for Unity. By replacing complex, low-level programming with structured, low-code visual building blocks, we enable instructional designers and enterprise teams to develop scalable immersive workflows systematically. The jury’s decision to honor MindPort emphasizes the practical utility and scalability of this approach.
This success was only made possible thanks to our outstanding research partners University Hospital of Bonn, Cologne University of Applied Sciences, University of Bonn, and Haption. Together with them, we are pushing the boundaries of what's possible and bring novel technologies into practical applications.
The official press releases are available on the websites of IHK Bonn/Rhein-Sieg and Handwerkskammer zu Köln.