LION Smart, a company of the LION E-Mobility Group, has been awarded the TOP 100 Seal 2026, placing it among Germany's most innovative mid-sized businesses. The award, which recognizes outstanding innovative strength, will be presented at the German SME Summit on 26 June in Heidelberg, where former Federal President Christian Wulff will personally congratulate the company.
The TOP 100 competition evaluates companies based on a scientific selection process led by innovation researcher Professor Nikolaus Franke and his team. The assessment covers five categories: innovation-oriented top management, innovation climate, innovation processes and organisation, external orientation/open innovation, and innovation success. These categories are broken down into more than 100 assessment criteria, which are analyzed through an online questionnaire completed by participating companies.
LION Smart impressed the selection committee and has been entitled to carry the TOP 100 Seal since 1 February. The company operates in the field of intelligent energy storage and battery solutions, specializing in modular, scalable storage systems for industrial, grid, and mobility applications. LION Smart's innovation-driven approach spans from early concept phase and system development through to market launch. According to Dr. Joachim Damasky, Managing Partner of LION Smart, innovation is a permanent part of the company's day-to-day work and corporate culture. The TOP 100 award confirms that the company is setting the right course technologically, organisationally, and strategically.
A key success factor for LION Smart is the close integration of research, development, and customer requirements, ensuring that new solutions are always developed with real-world applications and future market needs in mind. The company views the TOP 100 Seal as recognition of its achievements to date and as an incentive to play an active role in shaping the energy transition with further innovative storage solutions.
In the current, 33rd round of TOP 100, 356 mid-sized companies applied for the seal, of which 282 were successful. The award is given in three size categories: up to 50 employees, 51 to 200 employees, and more than 200 employees, with a maximum of 100 companies recognized in each category. The top innovators will gather on 26 June at the Heidelberg Congress Center for the German SME Summit, where Christian Wulff will personally congratulate them on their TOP 100 success.
Since 1993, compamedia has awarded the TOP 100 Seal to mid-sized companies for outstanding innovative strength and above-average innovation success. The scientific direction has been led by Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke since 2002, who is founder and chairman of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. The mentor of TOP 100 is former Federal President Christian Wulff. Project partners include the Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research and the SME association BVMW. The magazine manager magazin supports the competition as media partner, and the magazine ZEIT fur Unternehmer acts as cooperation partner. More information is available at www.top100.de.
