Romanian startup .lumen wins major award in Munich

Romanian deep-tech startup .lumen announced that it won the post-certification category of the Europe’s Best MedTech competition in Munich. The award was presented during Bits & Pretzels 2026 at an event organized by TUM Venture Labs Healthcare and hosted by medical technology company Brainlab.

The competition brought together 12 European MedTech startups, divided equally between companies in the pre-certification and post-certification stages.

.lumen won with its Glasses for the Blind, a wearable medical device that uses artificial intelligence to interpret the physical environment and guide users through haptic feedback. The technology is designed to reproduce some of the core mobility functions of a guide dog.

“We are honored to receive this recognition in Munich, at the heart of TUM, one of Europe’s strongest medical technology ecosystems,” said Cornel Amariei, founder and CEO of .lumen. “For .lumen, the award confirms that technology built in Romania can compete at the highest level.”

The prize includes participation and exhibition space at Health.tech 2027 in Basel, Switzerland, as well as a regulatory consulting package provided by CertHub.

The Munich recognition came only days after .lumen won the grand prize at the Glovo Tech Catalyst Romania 2026 competition. That award includes EUR 5,000 and participation in the StartUp Campus 2026 programme at Glovo’s headquarters in Barcelona.

Founded in Romania, .lumen develops what it calls Physical AI for Mobility - technology that interprets the physical world to help people and machines move autonomously. Its glasses for blind users are CE-marked as a medical device and have been tested by more than 1,000 people from over 40 countries, according to the company.