On July 24th at 11:00 a.m. the final of the Green and Water categories of the StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA) was held at the Berlaymont Building located in Brussels. The event was attended by Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, who handed over the prizes to Biomyc and Enova named as winners by the appointed expert members of the jury. Both startups happened to be from Bulgaria and were selected through the Country Manager of the country, Cleantech.
Furthermore, the ceremony was attended by the CEO of Finnova, Juan Manuel Revuelta, who talked about the relevance of the environment and the possibilities of funding for Startups within the European Union. “It is of paramount importance to boost entrepreneurship and private-public partnerships between startups and public administrations and there are European funding tools that serve that purpose” pointed out Juan Manuel.
StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA) is an initiative implemented by the Finnova Foundation, promoted by the European Commission and supported by the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, and the President of the Committee of the Regions, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, within the framework of the Startup Europe programme. These awards seek to identify and recognise startups in Europe who are concerned with developing the values of entrepreneurship and innovation, including the promotion of respect for the environment.
The Green category aims at recognising startups offering products, services or methodologies addressing different topics like improved resource efficiency, climate change, low carbon economy or societal challenges among others. The award represents Finnova’s and the European’s Union compromise with the preservation and protection of the environment for present and future generations. The winner for this category was BIOMYC a Bulgarian startup which is developing an economically viable, fully biodegradable composite material made of agricultural waste as feedstock and mushroom mycelium as a binding agent.
On the other hand, the Water category aims at recognising startups working in the implementatio
n of various matters like water sustainable systems, coordination to public participation, chemical pollution or groundwater among others. This category responds to the importance of water itself. Water is the source of live and life itself. It is a precondition for human, animal and plant life, an indispensable resource for the economy and a fundamental piece in the climate regulation cycle. Therefore, protecting our water resources, such as fresh or salt water or the water we drink and bathe in is one of the pillars of environmental protection in Europe. The winner for this category was also a Bulgarian startup called Enova. This startup has designed a BOD monitoring system based on a new generation of biosensor capable of detecting and quantifying the organic pollution in water.
You can re-view the event here, to see the pictures of the ceremony please click here.