Carl and Mads Fagerlund pitching in the Startup Lab final at Koldinghus. Photo: Fynske Bank.
Fynske Bank published a follow-up to the Startup Lab final, and it lands on the part that mattered most to us — which was not the cheque.
Seven of the country’s most promising startups pitched at Koldinghus for a combined DKK 150,000. More than 50 companies had entered the opening pitch rounds in Kolding, Odense and Aarhus; 13 went through to an intensive business-development programme of two workshops and a bootcamp at Houens Odde, and that field was cut to the seven finalists.
The juror we had our eye on
Before pitching, we had already singled out one member of the panel: Ehsanullah Ekhlas, co-founder of Odense growth company Unicontrol, which makes sensors for excavators and sold to US-based Spectra Precision for a nine-figure DKK sum in a handful of years.
“When the jury panel was announced, I read the whole story about Ehsan and Unicontrol and was very impressed by the company’s development, and that they managed to reach the market in 28 countries in just seven years. Many of the things we dream about have come true for Unicontrol, and their product resembles ours in many ways. We collect data and offer insights and courses of action you would not otherwise have had.”
— Carl Fagerlund
Why the jury chose Deepvis
“The winner is a company that knows its market, knows what the product has to do, and has a handle on the technology. At the same time you have involved your users in developing the project and based the product on a real need. That is also how we did it in Unicontrol. It is much better to find out whether anyone will pay for your product before you spend half a million or a million developing it.”
— Ehsanullah Ekhlas, on behalf of the jury
“You have pilot customers, you have revenue, and the potential is large. You are solving a problem that gets bigger in the future, and that can help keep jobs in Denmark and Europe.”
— Ehsanullah Ekhlas
The part that wasn’t the money
In the minutes after the win, it was everything else that filled the room:
“Just the fact that he looks us in the eye and says our project is enormously interesting, and that he would like to help us, means a great deal to us. One thing is the prize money and the network we got from taking part, but the fact that we already have a meeting in the calendar with an experienced figure who can help us on is a huge difference for us.”
— Carl Fagerlund
Which is, in fairness, exactly what Fynske Bank Startup Lab is for.
Source: Fynske Bank — “Deepvis vandt Fynske Bank Startup Lab, og fik langt mere end præmiechecken med hjem”, 2 December 2025. Quotes translated from Danish. See also our note on the final itself.
