Europas add regional flavour to tech start-up awards


23 Nov 2012

This year the Europas, the European tech start-up awards, have added a number of regional awards, to reflect the “vast and varied tech ecosystem” in Europe, and Silicon Republic is delighted to be one of the media partners.

Originally launched and run in London by Mike Butcher of TechCrunch, this year’s Europas are a co-production with Paddy Cosgrave of Dublin Web Summit and F.ounders fame, and will be held in Berlin, Germany.

The Europas seek out the “hottest new start-ups in Europe, Middle East and Africa” and have previously recognised such household names as SoundCloud, Mind Candy, Spotify and Betfair. Now a number of region-specific awards have been added to identify the best tech start-ups in the UK, Germany, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and – of course – Ireland.

Among the Irish judges will be Siliconrepublic.com’s own editor John Kennedy, and Noel Ruane, venture partner with Polaris Ventures, with further judges to be named in coming days.

“We’re delighted to be involved with the Europas this year,” said Silicon Republic CEO Ann O’Dea. “As long-time champions of the vibrant tech start-up scene in Ireland, we’re very pleased to see another opportunity to showcase the best on a global stage.”

Start-ups who are less than three years old and have raised less than €3m to date are eligible to enter the awards, and the organisers are seeking out the start-ups that have made the biggest impact over the past year.

“There are incredible start-ups in countries right across Europe, so we’ve decided to start with a number of tech hubs and seek out the hottest start-ups in each, give them a platform at the Europas and introduce them to leading investors and media,” said Europas co-organiser Paddy Cosgrave. “We’ve got over 20 categories now and while we don’t have every city just yet, we hope to add more in the coming years.”

The Europas team tell us more than 500 entries have already been received, and entries are still being accepted online until 30 November.

Berlin image via Shutterstock