ULTRALIGHT WINS THE FOUNDERS AWARD: Gyrocopter manufacturer Rotorvox wins the KfW Founders’ Champion 2015 Award for Thuringia

Rotor­vox, the man­u­fac­turer of full car­bon fiber gyro­copters, was awarded the KfW Founders’ Cham­pion 2015 Award for the state of Thuringia.

With its already-air­wor­thy Rotor­vox C2A, the Thuringian avi­a­tion com­pany won the con­fi­dence of a jury of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the KfW Bank Group, var­i­ous cham­bers of com­merce around Ger­many, and sev­eral polit­i­cal, eco­nomic, and regional devel­op­ment institutions.

The award cer­e­mony took place on Octo­ber 8^th dur­ing deGUT (Ger­man Founders and Start-up Con­fer­ence) at the Fed­eral Min­istry for Eco­nomic Affairs and Energy in Berlin.

The prize has been awarded by the KfW Bank Group since 1998. The prize winner’s busi­ness idea and the fea­si­bil­ity of its imple­men­ta­tion are assessed with spe­cial atten­tion given to the cre­ation and main­te­nance of jobs, the assump­tion of social respon­si­bil­ity and envi­ron­men­tal impact. Sig­mar Gabriel, Fed­eral Min­is­ter of Eco­nom­ics and Energy, is the gov­ern­ment spon­sor of the event.

About Rotor­vox

GGC GmbH is based in Ober­mehler, Thuringia, and was founded in 2011. GGC devel­ops and mar­kets full car­bon fiber gyro­copters under the brand Rotor­vox. Ronald Schoppe, CEO of GGC GmbH, pre­vi­ously worked at Volk­swa­gen Motor­sport for 13 years. The idea to develop a novel gyro­copter came to Schoppe as he was mon­i­tor­ing test dri­ves for Volk­swa­gen in the deserts of Africa and look­ing for an alter­na­tive to costly heli­copter flights. After a four-year of devel­op­ment and flight test­ing period, the sale of the Rotor­vox C2A began in spring 2015.

About KfW

KfW Bank Group sup­ports the Ger­man econ­omy with a broad range of pro­mo­tional pro­grams, such as the ERP Founder’s Loan in amounts up to €100,000 and the ERP Uni­ver­sal Founder’s Loan in even larger loan vol­umes.   About deGUT   deGUT (Ger­man Founders and Start-up Con­fer­ence) is the largest exhi­bi­tion fair for start-ups and entre­pre­neurs in Ger­many. It took place in Berlin on Octo­ber 9–10, 2015. deGUT is orga­nized by the Investi­tions­bank Berlin (IBB) and the Invest­ment Bank of Bran­den­burg (ILB). The event is spon­sored the Euro­pean Social Fund; the Berlin Sen­ate Depart­ment for Eco­nom­ics, Tech­nol­ogy and Research; and the Bran­den­burg Min­istry of Econ­omy and Energy of the State.

About deGUT

deGUT (Ger­man Founders and Start-up Con­fer­ence) is the largest exhi­bi­tion fair for start-ups and entre­pre­neurs in Ger­many. It took place in Berlin on Octo­ber 9–10, 2015. deGUT is orga­nized by the Investi­tions­bank Berlin (IBB) and the Invest­ment Bank of Bran­den­burg (ILB). The event is spon­sored the Euro­pean Social Fund; the Berlin Sen­ate Depart­ment for Eco­nom­ics, Tech­nol­ogy and Research; and the Bran­den­burg Min­istry of Econ­omy and Energy of the State.