Explosion in startups at the European Venture Contest

As we wrote in our previous article, European Venture Contest 2012 is an integral part of European Venture Summit 2012. Now after the completion of Summit and announcement of the Contest´s results we would give a short summary of the both events.

130 high-tech startups companies from across Europe gathered at the 6th edition of the European Venture Summit (EVS), Europe’s leading venture marketplace, to ‘pitch’ their business proposition to over 120 venture investors (venture capital investors, business angels and Corporate Venture Partners) looking for the right company to invest in. These investors also rated these companies’ presentations in order to rank the 25 best European high-tech companies in the European Venture Contest (EVC). The Venture Contest and Summit play an active role in the financing of European high-tech startup companies and the resulting job creation and economic growth. Berlin Senator for Economics, Technology and Research, Mrs. Cornelia Yzer noted: “[The supply of] Risk capital is crucial for the sustainable growth of startups. Berlin has seen an ‘explosion in startups’ in recent years and is a true vibrant and creative capital. But it is vital to attract international venture capital investors to invest into the local startup community through initiatives such as the European Venture Summit.’ 

The European Venture Summit was hosted by Investitionsbank Berlin, sponsored by Dealmarket, Newion Investments and Morgan Lewis and organized by Europe Unlimited. EVC – Awards for Top 10, Top 25 Each of the 130 entrepreneurs presenting at EVS had been pre-qualified at one of Europe Unlimited’s 18 pan-European qualifier events throughout the year. In Berlin, the pitches of the 130 entrepreneurs were reviewed by more than 120 investors and experts present in 3 different streams: ICT, Cleantech and Life Sciences. Following question & answers after the presentations, the investors rated the Finalists on 7 criteria (see page 3 below). Using all the review ratings on the 7 criteria from the participating investors, organizer Europe Unlimited computed the results to identify the Top 25 of the EVC 2012. These 25 best rated enterprises were then voted for preference by the EVC – Selection Jury, who was in charge of bringing this down to the Top 10. The European Venture Summit thus acted as the selection ground for the Top 10 of the EVC 2012.

Based on the evaluation of Selection Jury, here are the Cleantech companies from Top 25 of the European Venture Contest 2012:

Camfridge Ltd [GB]
Geothermal Anywhere [SK]
ROMO Wind [CH]
Sensile Technologies [CH]
Tidal Sails AS [NO]
TRI-VIZOR [BE]
XYLOWATT SA [BE]
4a medicom GmbH [AT]