EU Commission, European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions they all recently agreed that improving the ecosystem for start-ups and scale-ups in Europe will have a direct beneficial effect on jobs and growth in the EU.

Following this premise, the objective of StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA) is to identify local role models in each ecosystem of startups across Europe. These local entrepreneurs will become inspirational examples for the new generations that will have a positive impact on improving the entrepreneurship culture in Europe. All the same, the identified local successful entrepreneurs will be crucial for local authorities to define tailored programmes to invigorate their local ecosystems and enhance public – private collaboration.

Startup Europe Awards recognizes the effort of the European startups in five levels (local, county, regional, national and European) in ten categories: Creative, Energy, Fintech, Green, Health, ICT, Smart Cities, Social, Tourism and Water. Each involved country will recognize the best local startups which will have the chance to compete to be awarded as the best European startups, in the Final ceremony to be held first quarter of 2017 in Brussels. For this reason, StartUp Europe Awards is “The Eurovision for Startups”.

StartUp Europe Awards is creating as well an Alliance gathering the organizers of startup awards (accelerators, universities, consultors, businesses angels) all around Europe and beyond, being a forum for the interchange of best practices and networking amongst all the players involved in the European ecosystem.

The first year of this initiative, 15 countries answered our call being members of the SEUA Alliance: Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Estonia, Poland, Italy, Luxembourg and Bulgaria.

As an active player of your local innovation ecosystem, you can be part of this great initiative and give the entrepreneurs of your territory the chance to be a model for the European continent!

From now, you will find in this blog the most relevant information about National Awards and the progress of the startups recognized in each national competition. This will be a window to give a European dimension to the talent of each participating country, in coordination with 15 media partners that are helping us to make more visible the initiative.

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.

You are more than invited to follow us and be part of “The Eurovision for Startups”.

Juan Manuel Revuelta                                               Isidro Laso

SEUA Director                                                             Head of Sector – StartUp Europe
General Director Finnova Foundation                     EU Commission