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Press Release
Frankfurt am Main, 19.10.2023

Content Shift accelerator 2023: GoLexic is the Content Startup of 2023

First place awarded to reading support app GoLexic | Winner receives the innovation prize of 10,000 euro | Sponsorship programme for startups to be continued in 2024 | Companies from the industry can sponsor the programme and take up a place on the jury

The startup GoLexic was named "Content Startup of 2023" at the Frankfurter Buchmesse today. A total of 44 startups from three continents applied for this year’s sponsorship programme including founders from the USA, France, the Netherlands, Rumania and the Philippines. In today's final round, GoLexic came out on top with their pitch against the other finalists and can now look forward to receiving the innovation prize of 10,000 euro. The app offers short, fun training sessions for children of primary school age to promote reading independently at home or at school.

Jury spokesperson Per Dalheimer (Omnichannel Book Retailer Hugendubel) explained the jury’s decision as follows: "GoLexic impressed us with its basic principle: to provide individual support for children with dyslexia or other reading difficulties. In doing so, it addresses an issue of great social relevance, namely the growing deficits in reading skills among children. By using the app, children learn to understand and deal with texts on their own, at their own pace and in small chunks. The accessible and playful nature of the app enables children to enjoy using it and to find a connection to reading and books. This makes the app an excellent support for children, parents and teachers."

In addition to GoLexic, five other startups also made it to the final round and were able to benefit from three months of coaching and mentoring from members of the jury and other experienced experts from the sector. Those other startups were:

  • Bookscreener (LeReTo) is an interactive, multi-disciplinary research and reference book tool that can provide access to publishers' entire stock of reference books.
  • Lit-X offers dashboards and applications such as "trend scouting" or "pricing" to make literature publication success transparent and easier to predict using a wide range of data from online sources.
  • SUMM AI describes itself as "Deepl for Easy Language": The AI and Large Language Model based tool automatically translates any complicated text into the "Easy Language" style as defined by the accessibility field.
  • to teach (thea) offers a platform that uses AI to enable teachers and other education providers to digitise analogue content at the touch of a button and then distribute it to their target group.
  • XigXaghave developed an app that combines a listening and reading concept with an associated social platform. Here, listeners can switch between listening and reading without needing to pay twice.

The jury

The Accelerator programme is sponsored by companies from the book and media industry, which send members to the Content Shift jury. This year’s jury is composed of: Martina Fiddrich (Cornelsen Publishing House), Nina Hugendubel and Per Dalheimer (Hugendubel Bookstores), Detlef Büttner and Leif Göritz (Lehmanns Media/Thalia Bookstores), Colin Hauer (Hörbuch Hamburg), Wolfgang Pichler (MANZ Publishing House and Bookstores), Jasmin Ahluwalia and Philipp Neie (Schweitzer Fachinformationen), Stefanie Penck (TeNeues Publishing House), Ronald Schild (MVB) as well as Lennart Schneider (independent strategy consultant) as a partner of the programme from outside the industry.

The Content Shift Accelerator will continue in 2024 and companies are invited once again to participate in the ninth round of the programme as investors. Their representatives will receive a place on the jury as well as direct and exclusive access to the ideas of the startup applicants.

Additional Information

Materials to Download

About Content Shift

Content Shift is an initiative of the Börsenverein Group that focuses on new business models for the German-language book market. In addition to the accelerator, it also includes regular pitch events ("icebreakers") and a newsletter. The initiative was launched to support founders, to network startups with the book industry and to share information about new business models.
www.contentshift.de/en

About the Börsenverein Group

The Börsenvereinsgruppe (Group of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association) represents the interests of Germany's book industry and provides its members with advisory and practical services. The group comprises the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers and Booksellers Association) and its business subsidiaries, which include Frankfurter Buchmesse, MVB, mediacampus frankfurt as well as the Holding Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels Beteiligungsgesellschaft. The Börsenvereinsgruppe supports the book industry and media sector by providing professional services that include advocacy, the organisation of cultural projects, tradeshows, training programmes and publishing and technology services.
www.boersenvereinsgruppe-jobs.de

About MVB

Technology and information provider MVB makes books visible. Major platforms, based on international metadata standards, enable publishers and bookstores to promote their products successfully and efficiently in their home markets and abroad. Editorial and advertising formats as well as face-to-face networking give orientation in different book markets. In close cooperation with customers and market players from all areas of the book industry, the teams located in Frankfurt am Main, London, Mexico City, New York, and São Paulo continuously work on innovative Infrastructure solutions for the book trade of the future.
www.mvb-online.com

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