THE EUROPAS AWARDS HONOUR THE BEST TECH STARTUPS IN EUROPE

The Europas Startup Conference and Awards — the new type of tech conference by Mike Butcher, MBE, devised in partnership with Techcrunch – last night announced and honoured The Best Tech Startups in Europe.

 “We have come a long way from the first event in a bar in Bermondsey in 2009, but in front of almost 800 of Europe’s top top tech entrepreneurs tonight, The Europas Awards played host to the cream of Europe’s tech startup industry”, Butcher continues.

A number of The Europas Speakers and Judges comment:

Suranga Chandratillake, General Partner at Balderton Capital says: “Once again the Europas brought together all the most interesting people in technology for an intense 24 hours of conversation, debate and the sharing of ideas.  As public market multiples for software companies improve and deals like Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn happen, we appear to be on the cusp of a new dawn in the technology ecosystem and the conference’s timing coincided perfectly with this more optimistic, yet reflective time.”

Katherine Crisp, Head of Strategy and Innovation at Unicef UK says: “We are thrilled to be part of the Europas and for a second year supporting the Best Humanitarian Tech Award. It was difficult to choose from the excellent shortlist, but we’re delighted that MeshPoint was chosen as the winner. MeshPoint was created in response to the refugee crisis. The team identified that the ability to communicate and access information was a critical need for families and children as they travelled across Europe. Their open source and durable Wi-Fi hotspot is a fantastic solution and we look forward to seeing how their technology can be utilised further to help families and children around the world.”

Christian Hernandez Gallardo, Managing Partner, White Star Capital, comments: “From a small event in East London where a fledgling Swedish startup called Spotify won an award to the large event next to the Thames today, The Europas has become an iconic emblem of the acceleration of the digital ecosystem in Europe and a celebration of what we all are achieving.”

Jonathan Luff, Co-Founder, Epsilon Advisory Partners cautions:

“This is a critical moment for the UK’s tech sector. There’s so much at stake, and I really hope we don’t put in jeopardy the prospects for UK tech and the fantastic startups here at the Europas with a reckless decision to leave the EU next week.”

Melissa Jun Rowley, CEO of TheToolbox.org, says: “I moved to London for it’s thriving tech and social impact scene, and am so happy that The Europas organized a panel on the importance of humanitarian tech. It’s a sign of what’s to come. All tech has a humanitarian angle, you just need to bring the right players together. Mike and his team know how to do exactly that.“

Andy Hobsbawm, co-founder and CMO, EVRYTHNG, adds: “The Europas has created a platform for technology innovation and growth by connecting the best ideas, capital, and entrepreneurs in Europe. As always, it’s fantastic to be part of it.”

Dave Mathews, CEO NewAer, Inc. says: “I’ve been coming to the Europas for the past five years from Silicon Valley and am impressed with the calibre and European diversity of the startups who debut and the executives who share their expertise on the stage.”

The winners, selected from the nominees, were:

# Category Winners

The Winner is: Dubsmash

The startup shows how amazing entertainment products can come out of Europe and go global. And from Berlin!

The Winner is: Zalando –

With 18.4 million customers and growing, the German e-commerce powerhouse shows how to grow from a startup to a leading fashion e-tailer with 796 million euros in Q1 2016 alone.

The Winner is: Peak

Europe leads the word in Education apps and Peak has proved that in spades with it’s successful brain-training app.

The Winner is: Entrepreneur First

Coming almost from nowhere, Entrepreneur first has proved that it can take raw talent and turn it into startups. These guys are acing the field right now.

The Winner is: Adludio

In a market where advertising tech is very established, Adludio is proving you can innovate.

The Winner is: ustwo 

ustwo emerged from a bigger group to become a powerhouse of creativity with games like Monument Valley and Lands End in VR. Apple love these guys and so does Frank Underwood when he’s bored, because he loves to play it on House of Cards.

The Winner is: Fever 

Coming from Spain, Fever quickly took root in Europes biggest cities and has become the millennials’ favourite method of organizing a night out. With $23m in its war chest we haven’t seen the last of this app.

The Winner is: Funding Circle

Funding Circle is the world’s leading online marketplace for business loans, raising $272m and has shown London’s FinTech dominance right now.

The Winner is: MOVE Guides

MOVE Guides has literally solved the intractable problem of international relocation for todays global executives and has spread to multiple locations internationally.

The Winner is: Technology Will Save Us

Combining an innovative design approach and exciting model for 21^st Century education, Tech Will Save US has become the go-to hardware for kids getting into tech.

The Winner is: Student.com 

Student.com, the student accommodation marketplace provides a better experience for both students and landlords – helping to grow it across 100 countries and take $100 million in bookings

The Winner is: Clue 

Clue – this Berlin digital health startup empowers women to take control of their reproductive health and collectively provides valuable insight on female reproductive health issues.

The Winner is: Darktrace 

With Cyber Security becoming top priority in today’s world, this Cambridge security startup now has a billionaire, an ex-MI5 chief and an ex-CIA tech leader on its board. James Bond would be proud.

The Winner is: Credits

Credits has taken the blockchain technology and turned it into a platform which could well power the enterprises of the future.

The Winner is: Secret Escapes

This members-only travel club offering discounted rates on luxury hand-picked holidays has become a mainstay of the travel business while disrupting the world of luxury travel.

The Winner is: EVRYTHNG

Because of EVRYTHNG over 10 billion shirts and shoes will soon talk back to you via your phone. And that’s just the start. Watch out because this startup planes to connect every consumer product to the Web.

The Winner is: Pavegen 

Pavegen converts the kinetic energy generated from foot-steps into renewable electricity. It’s literally magic, and is heading out to power the world with you.

The Winner is: Chic by Choice 

This one-of-a-kind hire destination allows women to access the most breathtaking designer dresses, straight from the catwalks.

The Winner is: Blaze Burner

Blaze had already re-invented the bicycle light, but now it’s done it again with a intelligent tail light. They now have the world’s city-owned bicycle networks eating out of their hands.

The Winner is: Meshpoint 

MeshPoint’s open source and durable Wi-Fi hotspot  will allow refugees to  communicate and access information which is a critical need for families and children as they travelled across Europe.

The Winner is: Jeremy Yap

One of the most prolific and smart Angel investors, Jeremy can be found in one of two places: meeting startups or on a plane. This man is a machine.

The Winner is: Eileen Burbidge of Passion Capital

This prominent Partner at Passion Capital, has invested in some of London’s hottest FinTech startups and has taken on a public role of championing London and European startups. Coming out of Yahoo!, Skype and Apple she has brought her hands-on knowledge of startups to entrepreneurs and they sing her praises for it.

The Winner is: Sarah Wood, Unruly  

Sarah Wood is co-founder and CEO of marketing technology company Unruly. She’s steered the company from high growth (second fastest in the UK) to its successful sale to News Corp for £114m.

The Winner is: Deliveroo’s founders Will Shu and Greg Orlowski 

Will Shu co-founded Deliveroo in August 2012 with Greg Orlowski and since then they have proved a rock-star team, scaling a high growth business and introducing new thinking to the market.

The Winner is: Deliveroo

This UK-based high-growth unicorn shows there’s a strong appetite for on demand premium restaurant delivery. Deliveroo is now in 65 cities and expected to hit £130 m in revenues in 2016.

The Winner is: Jørn Lyseggen, Meltwater 

Jørn Lyseggen was born in Korea, adopted in Norway, and grew from his humble beginnings into a highly successful entrepreneur. His Meltwater B2B online media monitoring service started with $15,000 and now has 50 offices, 800+ employees, and has evolved into a software as a service (SaaS) company. But Lyseggen has given back, by establishing the non-profit Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra, Ghana, which is now educating entrepreneurs and some of Africa’s hottest startups.

The Winner is: Deliveroo