HSO Student Startup Wins ASAP Finals

Pace Engineer impresses the jury at the state-wide university startup competition with coaching software for sim racers.

At the 16th ASAP Finals hosted by the NXTGN innovation platform, 22 teams from 19 universities in Baden-Württemberg presented their startup ideas. The overall winner comes from Hochschule Offenburg: Nico Kollmer and Paul Müller impressed the jury with Pace Engineer, a digital coaching solution for the growing sim-racing market.

The two business administration students developed the idea during the 2025–26 winter semester in the required elective course “Entrepreneurship.” Their approach: Software analyzes the simulator’s telemetry data in real time while the driver is racing and provides immediate, personalized feedback. With this, the founders aim to fill a gap: Around 150,000 people in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland participate in sim racing, yet there is a shortage of qualified coaches.

Following a successful pitch in February 2026, software development began in March. An initial prototype is expected to be ready by the end of the year. To this end, the team is currently seeking additional support in development and coding. Later, Pace Engineer will be offered via a subscription model for less than one euro per day.

Winning the ASAP final comes with a prize of 1,000 euros, mentoring from the Venture Mentoring Team, and additional startup support. The team is supported by the startup advisory service at Hochschule Offenburg and marketing professor Achim Burkhardt.

More information: https://www.hs-offenburg.de/hochschule/news/artikel/startup-von-studierenden-der-hochschule-gewinnt-asap-finale

HSO

M

Michal

Contributor at ChallengeEU Alliance.