- Italy, Poland and Finland organize their national awards between December 6 and 9 of 2016
- More than 57 startups in up to 10 categories from 12 European countries have been recognized by their National Awards.
On December 6 with more than 50 startups participating, X23 will celebrate the Italian national final in Milan; Startup Poland will choose the best young talent in the country next December 7 in Warsaw and the Estonian Business Angels Network will celebrate the “Startup Day” in Tartu on Friday 9.
Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, Finland and Greece have chosen their best startups that will compete to be awarded in each of the 10 categories at the European final of StartUp Europe Awards to be held first quarter of 2107 in Brussels. “The Eurovision for Startups”.
After an intense autumn of local and regional events celebrated throughout Italy, the startups absolute finalists of each regional stage will compete in the national final, in an innovative event with the presence of Marco Zanni, Member of the EU Parliament; Isidro Laso – Head of StartUp Europe, DG Connect, EU Commission and Vanessa Ricci – from the Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises (EASME), EU Commission.
On the other hand, Startup Poland has partnered with the Polish branch of Citi Bank and created the Startup Poland Global program. The goal is to help Polish startups increase their business potential by going global. The best startups will be choosing to join the Startup Europe Awards in Brussels and meet with companies and investors from 16 countries.
Finally, from the “TOP 20 Startups in Estonia” chosen from a wider selection of applicants, the Country Manager Estonian Bussines Angels Network will select the best 10 Estonian startups during the Startup Day in Tartu.
All these countries besides Bulgaria, Luxembourg and UK are members of the SEUA Alliance, an international network that seeks to strengthen and support enterprise award organizers by sharing best practices that can replicate for the benefit of their entrepreneurial ecosystems.
To Juan Manuel Revuelta, SEUA director, “SEUA will be crucial to enhance public – private collaboration giving solutions to the local challenges, identifying innovation and improving the use of European funds”.
StartUp Europe Awards is promoted by the European Commission and supported by the President of the Committee of the Regions, several members of the European Parliament as Ambassadors and it is implemented by Finnova Foundation in collaboration with Startup Europe.