Startup Europe Awards

StartUp Europe Awards recognizes the best European startups in 18 categories

  • The European Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel chaired the final ceremony of StartUp Europe Awards at the Startup Europe Summit in Sofia, Bulgaria.
  • StartUp Europe Awards is an initiative of the European Commission and the Finnova Foundation – StartUp Europe Accelerator in collaboration with Startup Europe.
  • Enova, Biomyc, Simbound, Sky Tronic, Macedonian Honey, TOMMI, Cyclefi, Corrata, Helperbit, FuVeX, Uncovercity, Eyesynth, Courtsdesk, Plactherm, Live Electric Tours, Italian Artisan, Evvos and Popertee, have been awarded as the best startups in Europe in the 18 different categories.
  • The special recognition “Best Public Administration for startups” has gone to Budapest Enterprise Agency and to Xunta de Galicia. They have been recognized for their efforts in supporting entrepreneurship in their respective territories.

 

Sofia, 16th of November 2018. One more year, the so-called “Eurovision for startups” recognizes the best startups in Europe in 18 categories, this time in an event chaired by the European Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, who showed the commitment of the European Commission supporting startups. “The startups are motors for innovation, dynamism, growth, jobs and technological advances. Supporting them is in interest of our economies and our citizens who benefit from their stimulating energy” she stated.

 

The final ceremony of the StartUp Europe Awards initiative, promoted by the European Commission and the Finnova Foundation in collaboration with Startup Europe, took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, within the framework of the Startup Europe Summit. The Summit gathered more than 500 leaders from the European entrepreneurial ecosystem ranging from investors, CEOs, accelerators to European authorities and technological journalists.

 

It counted with the honorific presence of the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova; the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov; the Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brnabić; the Prime Minister, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Zoran Zaev; the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Duško Marković; the Deputy Prime Minister from Bulgaria, Tomislav Donchev; the Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo[1], dr. Enver Hoxhaj; the Founder & CEO of Factory, President of Startup Portugal and Angel Investor in Europe, Simon Schaefer and the Senior Vice President & General Manager at Dell EMC, CEE and chair of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition Governing Board, Anja Monrad, among other personalities.

 

StartUp Europe Awards proposes a methodology of open innovation through the public – private partnership, “that works for the public entities to find a solution for its local challenges and for the startups to try its innovations in pilots supported with European funding”, declared Juanma Revuelta, director of StartUp Europe Accelerator by Finnova Foundation.

 

The European winners of StartUp Europe Awards according to the 18 categories are: Enova (Water), Biomyc (Green), Simbound (EdTech), Sky Tronic (IoT), Macedonian Honey (Climate), TOMMI (E-Health), Cyclefi (Smart Cities), Corrata (Cybersecurity), Helperbit (FinTech), FuVeX (Space), Courtsdesk (Legal), Uncovercity (Gastronomy), Eyesynth (Social), Plactherm (Energy), Italian Artisan (Fashion), Popertee (Creative), Evvos (AgriTech) and Live Electric Tours (Tourism).

 

Eighteen startups that, thanks to this recognition, continue the path towards success and business stability, taking as a reference other companies which are, nowadays, positioned as some of the most important in their sectors. Regarding this, Commissioner Gabriel pointed out “few years ago when young companies like yours were receiving such awards. We know them today very well: Prezi, Soundcloud or Klarna. This time you will be on the spotlight, this time you are the ones that get the applause”.

 

In her speech, the Commissioner also congratulated all the European winners and encouraged them to continue working hardly as they have been doing until now. “Europe wants to have more emerging companies like yours (…) You showcased that success can come from anywhere in Europe. And you showcased that in order to succeed you must be bold and brave”, she said.

 

The Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov, also wanted to refer to the responsibility of companies towards society, proposing innovative solutions that serve not only to improve socially, but also to inspire other startups: “I would like to see companies proposing solutions to transform our society and make our lives easier”, he stated.

 

For the Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova “innovative young people are biggest potential we have in town”.

 

In total, 134 finalists startups from Ireland, Poland, Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Spain, Macedonia, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine and Belgium, will opt for the recognition of best startup in the 18 categories of SEUA.

 

The Startup Europe Awards also awarded the special “Best Public Administration for Startups” recognition to Budapest Enterprise Agency (BEA) for Municipality Category and

Xunta de Galicia (Xesgalicia) in the Region category, awarding the work of these administrations within the local and regional landscape to boost the work of startups.

 

For Piroska Szalai, Chair of Board, BEA, “receiving this recognition is a great honour for Budapest and for the Budapest Enterprise Agency (BEA) since BEA is the only organization of Budapest founded for the development and promotion of startups and SMEs. We help startups and SMEs national and international expansion, collect best practices, search and mentor outstanding startups and ensure them possibilities to show themselves in the most important innovative events of the world. This award is a recognition from the European Commity for our multiannual work –

 

“This award is very timely and helps us to better communicate the ecosystem we have created in Galicia to help startups and scaleups. An ecosystem that allows the growth of the startups, thanks to very different and complementary programs. It is an opportunity to visualize all this work, so that the startups consider Galicia as a strategic place in which to develop their proposals”, stated Fernando Guldrís, CEO of Xesgalicia by Xunta de Galicia.

 

The other special recognitions went to Justyna Gudaszewskas, Sky Tronic co-founder, as Best Female Entrepreneur and for the Colombian startup Interacpedia, recognised as Best LATAM startup within the StartUp Europe Awards.

 

All the winners of StartUp Europe Awards will obtain great visibility all around Europe thanks to the Media Partner Alliance of StartUp Europe Awards formed by 25 media members from several countries in Europe (Spain, France, Belgium, Latvia, Luxembourg, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark). The startups will also have access to a programme of mentoring (in internationalization, European funds like SMEs Instrument of 50.000 € to 2,5 million € of non-refundable subsidy, international communication, etc.), through the StartUp Europe Accelerator by the Finnova Foundation, which will allow them to boost their projects and increase their viability worldwide.

 

StartUp Europe Accelerator is the unique accelerator specialized in European opportunities funding, which helps the entrepreneurs internationalize their business through European projects.

 

 

About StartUp Europe Awards

SEUA serves as a communication tool for society, encouraging collaboration between the public and business sectors and promoting innovative initiatives, as well the creation of alliances enabling in every region concerned to gather entities and the support programmes for entrepreneurs with local and international partners.

 

“From the Commission, we want that entrepreneurship generating growth and employment not to be only present in a few cities or regions. Thus, more people can benefit from the impact and can have inspiration by other role models” assures Isidro Laso, Head of Startups and Scaleups Sector (Startup Europe), DG CNECT.

 

20 members of the European Parliament have come together in the StartUp Europe Awards as ambassadors, supporting the local events with their presence and following closely the progress of the startups. More than 20 local events and 16 national awards have been celebrated under StartUp Europe Awards´ frame in 2017, with 134 startups winners. 25 media partners of the whole Europe, as The Independent in Ireland or Emprende TVE in Spain, they have helped to give visibility to this initiative.

 

StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA) is an open innovation initiative promoted by the European Commission and Finnova Foundation in collaboration with Startup Europe; it is supported by the President of the European Parliament; the President of the Committee of the Regions; the Vice-President of the Economic and Social Committee and several members from the European Parliament. StartUp Europe Awards is sponsored by StartUp Europe Accelerator.

 

Press Contact:

Catalina Valencia.

eustartup@finnova.eu

 

INFORMATION ABOUT STARTUP EUROPE AWARDS  WINNERS BY CATEGORIES

 

Water Category 

Country: Bulgaria

ENOVA

http://www.enova-h2o.com

The BOD monitoring system ENOVA designed is based on new generation of biosensors capable to detect and quantify the organic pollution in water. The systems could be used for monitoring of water bodies such as lakes, rivers and wetlands or to be a part of the control systems in different industries dealing with water. The main advantages of the product over the conventional approaches applied currently are: 1) the instant result and data generation by the biosensor system; 2) the opportunity to perform a real time monitoring and remote access to the data sets via web-based platform; 3) the system could be easily integrated into the GIS and SCADA environments.

 

Green Category 

Country: Bulgaria

Biomyc

https://www.biomyc.eu

Biomyc’s aim is to develop an economically viable, fully biodegradable composite material, made of agricultural waste as a feedstock (straw, corn husks, tobacco stems etc.) and mushroom mycelium as a binding agent. The fungal organism feeds on the lignocellulose rich feedstock and produces hyphae that connect and bind the waste particles to form a bio-mass composite material, from which a multitude of products can be created – particle boards, protective packaging and construction materials.

 

EdTech Category

Simbound

Country: Romania

http://simbound.com/

The startup Simbound, by creating a content experience that includes simulation games and courseware tools, allows you to do online marketing in a realistic environment. It is the 1st Digital Marketing Simulation Game, used by more than 13.000 people.

 

IoT Category and Special Recognition as Best Female Entrepreneur: 

Sky Tronic

Country: Poland

http://www.skytronic.com.pl/pl/

This startup aims at solving unstable flight of drones in difficult weather conditions as strong wind and the change of mass when carrying and dropping of cargo, because traditional PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controllers use linear approximation about reality and do not take into account unpredictable events.

The novel fuzzy logic steering controllers (FLC) are intended to transform the UAV industry for professional applications due to the more precise, autonomous, safe and stable flights in strong wind and carrying the cargo. FLC controllers use artificial intelligence algorithms to observe and steer the flying objects as human brain and correct deviations in real time. The FLC controller is targeted at professional drone producers and their unmanned helicopters for more efficient coordination of public safety and life rescue operations of mountain and water rescue agencies, police, fire department, border control, forest services and the surveillance of the areas in danger of natural disasters, ski runs, ski resorts, cable cars.

 

Climate category 

Macedonian honey

Country: Macedonia

https://www.macedonianhoney.com/

By creating a new way of beekeeping and inventing a new hive -Elle Hive- MACEDONIAN HONEY works for one common goal: survival of the honeybee. Their bees become stronger, and their genetic material provide future bee generations easily to deal with predators and climate changes. Protecting the endangered honeybee is not an altruistic venture – they are attempting to safeguard our own future. Honeybees are essential for the plant and ecosystem biodiversity. Climate change and biodiversity are inextricably linked.

 

E-Health Category 

TOMMI

Country: Italy

http://www.tommigame.com/

TOMMI is designed to improve patient’s therapy experience, engaging children senses and focusing their attention out of their negative feelings, also involving their parents to offer them a more active role during therapy. At the same time, TOMMI is designed to test children psychomotor skills using AI to collect and analyse therapy related data useful to doctors to track patient’s performances in time.

TOMMI is a product realized by Softcare Studios Srls, a digital health company using virtual reality and artificial intelligence in healthcare and wellness.

 

Smart Cities Category 

Cyclefi

Country: Greece

http://www.cyclefi.com

The startup Cyclefi, through an innovative waste-tracking technology, has brought a mechanism that interconnects recycling performance & discounts for online deal, revolutionizing the Smart Cities in the area of recycling.

 

Cybersecurity Category: 

Corrata

Country: Ireland

https://corrata.com/

To become a pre-eminent provider of enterprise mobility solutions to organizations globally by providing them with technology which protects their organization from the risks (cyber, reputational and economic) associated with their employees use of mobile devices without compromising their employees user experience.

 

Fintech Category 

Helperbit

Country: Italy

https://app.helperbit.com

The startup Helperbit, through the creation of a donation transparency platform and using the math-based currency bitcoin, has helped to make clear and visible the flow of money, avoiding the inefficiencies in the management of funds for humanitarian emergencies.

 

Space Category 

FUVEX

Country: Spain

http://www.fuvex.com/ 

FuVeX has developed and filed a new patent on QPCA (Quadcopter Plane Convertible Aircraft) technology, an aircraft that facilitates flight in large extensions thanks to its vertical takeoff / landing on any surface and its flight aircraft mode, with the double of autonomy than conventional drones. These features allow clients to save 50% in costs compared to other drones currently on the market. One of the main pretensions of the Navarrese startup is to facilitate the access of aeronautics to large companies and institutions, providing them with drones that allow them to solve their monitoring or transport needs flying long distances in a safe, easy and legal way.

 

Gastronomy Category 

Uncovercity

Country: Spain

https://uncovercity.com/

Uncovercity takes you by the hand of Cabify to enjoy gastronomic experiences without knowing the destiny until you are there. It includes a round trip with Cabify with a closed menu (Dinner + Drink). The experience can be booked for a minimum of two people.

 

Social Category 

Eyesynth

Country: Spain

https://eyesynth.com/

After being born in Castellón, Eyesynth has incorporated an innovative software system to create glasses that register the space around us in 3 dimensions, in what they call “increased sense experience”. This advance is an exponential impulse for the visually impaired, since, through a microcomputer, information about the space around them is processed and converted into comprehensible audio for the blind. In this way, the glasses send images to the microcomputer and process them in real time, so that the user obtains an instantaneous response. The environment is captured and processed in 3D, which means that the user also has information about the depth. Finally, the computer converts all this information into a series of sounds that can be used to interpret open spaces, shapes and obstacles.

 

Tourism Category

Live Electric Tours

Country: Portugal

www.liveelectrictours.com

Live Electric Tours is a Self Drive experience in 100% electric vehicles for tourists in the City of Lisbon. Their vehicles are the only ones in the world, because they are equipped with Free Wi-Fi, GPS Audio Guide, and a live camera that lets you share the whole experience with family and friends through social media.

 

Fashion Category 

Italian Artisan

Country: Italy

http://www.italian-artisan.com/

The startup Italian Artisan, by giving accessibility and sustainability to the Made in Italy manufacturing tradition, has helped international brands to produce their Made in Italy collection and grow their premium business in a sustainable way through digital tools.

 

Agritech 

Evvos

Country: Luxembourg

https://www.evvos.com

Evvos designs and develops hardware, firmware and cloud integration services platform. Their in-house hardware and software teams collaborate to ensure optimal interoperability between sensors, data acquisition devices and software.

 

Legal Category: 

Courtdesk

Country: Ireland

https://www.courtsdesk.com/

Courtsdesk is a breaking news service and research database for case details across all UK and Ireland court levels, and in future, the world. As a research tool, the platform allows users to monitor companies and people for involvement in litigation, as well as carry out statistical and relational analysis of key protagonists, the first such service to capture the 98% of cases currently taking place with no public or private searchability. By using Courtsdesk, financial, news and legal services firms can improve their business risk awareness and their own regulatory and commercial reporting. For the first time legal services – one of the most opaque industry sectors in most countries – is opened up to statistical and relational performance analysis of all law firms. As a news service, Courtsdesk is an entirely new model of journalism, built on bespoke software for professional court reporting. Their tools capture the data content of what happens in court rooms as well as the news content, and allows for collaboration by multiple organisations for mutual gain. Courtsdesk puts the content generated by its operations at the heart of value creation – eschewing the broken model of advert-funded journalism, using digital tools from the social media and big data age.

 

Energy Category

Plactherm

Country: Spain

http://plactherm.com/

Plactherm is a revolutionary heating system through which, through an intelligent radiant floor system, independent thermal zones are generated, saving up to 30% of energy consumption. The Plactherm system can be controlled remotely, is highly efficient, compatible with renewable energies, environmentally friendly and, most importantly, capable of generating independent thermal zones. If each person has a different type of comfort temperature, Plactherm gives the user the ability to control it. This increases comfort and reduces consumption.

 

Creative Category: 

Popertee

Country: Ireland

https://popertee.ai/

Popertee is building artificial intelligence that matches the perfect audience with the perfect location, enabling brands to discover and book spaces for their marketing and retail campaigns. Their platform will enable brands to select spaces based on their audience requirements. Brands can select demographic, location and socio-economic details based on their requirements and our platform will present to them spaces based on a “Popscore”. This recommendations engine gives a percentage match based on the brand requirements and available spaces. The spaces are taken from 3rd party property websites including estate agents, marketplaces and short-term space providers. We aim to build a global platform that leading marketing agencies and brands will use when seeking physical spaces for retail and marketing campaigns. The location intelligence market is one of the fastest growing markets globally (expected to reach $20billion in 2021) and Popertee wants to specifically address the large part of this market where brands want to intelligently find the best location to locate for their campaign.

 

OTHER SPECIAL CATEGORIES:

 

Best Public Administration for startups Award:

 

Municipality Category

Budapest Enterprise Agency

Country: Hungary

http://bvk.hu

Budapest Enterprise Agency is the only organization founded by the Budapest City Council back in 1993 for the development and promotion of the micro, small and medium enterprises of the Hungarian capital. Their mission is to contribute to the development and expansion of viable, new and existing entrepreneurs based on the market needs, thus contributing to the creation and preservation of workplaces in Budapest and to the facilitation of the economic growth of the Capital.

 

Region Category

Xunta de Galicia – Xesgalicia

Country: Spain

http://www.xesgalicia.gal

XesGalicia is a venture capital management company made up 100% of the Instituto Galego de Promoción Económica (Igape), whose purpose is to finance business development through temporary and minority shareholdings in the share capital of companies.

Contact: Fernando Guldris | Email: fguldris@xesgalicia.org  

 

Best LATAM Startup 

Interacpedia

Colombia

https://www.interacpedia.com

Interacpedia reinvented the connection between universities and organizations, making student projects generate value in society, solving real challenges!

 

SOCIAL NETWORKS STARTUP EUROPE AWARDS

 

Twitter: @StartUpEUAwards

Instagram: @StartUpEUAwards

Facebook: @StartUpEuropeAwards

LinkedIn: /StartUp-Europe-Awards

 

Hashtags of Startup Europe Awards Final: #SEUAFinal

Hashtags of Startup Europe Summit 2018: #SES18 

[1] This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.