Last year The Europas Awards for European Tech Startups was held at a sunny garden party next to a historic museum in London. Last night, because of the global Coronavirus pandemic, it was held over Zoom. But the enthusiasm and success of Europe’s tech startup industry still shone through the list of finalists and winners.
After 11 years of identifying the most innovative tech startups in Europe (past winners have included Spotify, Transferwise, Soundcloud, and Babylon Health) The Europas has shown itself capable of finding Europe’s hottest startups and remains the only independent and editorially-curated event to recognize the European tech startup scene. The winners have been featured in Reuters, Bloomberg, VentureBeat, Forbes, CNET, many other media outlets — and of course, TechCrunch which was the exclusive media sponsor of the awards, alongside the to-be-launched “impact innovation” title The Pathfounder.
The awards cover 20 categories, including new additions such as AgTech / FoodTech, SpaceTech and GovTech. After a record number of awards entries, an intense round of public voting and judges’ deliberations, then 13 deep-dive online workshops (which ticket holders are still able to watch here) the awards reached their conclusion. The all-star panel of judges (see below) were drawn from a diverse range of European tech founders, investors and journalists and their picks for the winners were combined with the results of the online public voting, as they have done for the last 11 years.
The live stream of the awards – which also featured two panels on addressing racial diversity in the tech industry and the future for environmental innovation – on Zoom is available here (Password: 2v*34=^f), although due to a technical hitch recording started a few minutes into the first panel, before the start of the awards themselves. You can sign up to get news of next year’s awards and similar events here.
This year the physical event was replaced by 13 live workshops built around the awards categories, where shortlisted companies were able to pitch live on the platform. In addition, the “Pathfounder Sessions” offered exclusive workshops with specially invited guests, aimed at European startups raising money at this time. Attendees networked on the dedicated Slack community.
Sponsors of The Europas Awards:
1. FieldHouse Associates
2. The Royal Academy of Engineering
3. Burlington CC
4. The Telecom Infra Project
5. Potter Clarkson
6. PlayFair Capital
7. TechCrunch
8. Bizzabo
9. iHorizon
The winners are listed both here and below:
There were two, panel, discussions. The first was on “Black Founders: The State of Black Tech Entrepreneurship and Increasing Access to Funding”. Featuring: Tom Adeyoola, co-founder at Extend Ventures and former founder and CEO of Metail; Andy Davis, Venture Partner, Backstage Capital, and Angel Programme Atomico 2020; and Yvonne Bajela, of Impact X Capital (pictured below).
The second panel was on Sustainability. “Here comes the next crisis: can green startups save the planet?”. This featured Greg Jackson, CEO and Founder, Octopus Energy; Lubomila Jordanova, CEO and Founder, PlanA.Earth; and Ana Avaliani, Associate Director, Enterprise, Royal Academy of Engineering.
At the end of the awards, attendees were entertained by DJ MAX, broadcasting live from Munich.
So, the winners of The Europas Awards 2020 are:
Hottest Ag/FoodTech Startup
ConstellR, Germany, monitoring our planet’s temperature down to the fraction of a degree through a constellation of satellites
Earth Rover, UK, AI Powered crop agronomy service for high-value crops.
iFarm, Finland, Building indoor farming tech including automated vertical farms
Planted, Switzerland, Turning all-natural ingredients into plant-based meat, including chicken.
Winner: iFarm
With sales across 21 countries, iFarm is seeing steadily growing revenues from its indoor farming tech that can be installed in stores, restaurants, warehouses, and homes for a more sustainable way of growing some 120 crops.
Hottest Climate/GreenTech Startup
Finalists:
Cervest, UK, Building climate security tools to empower optimal, informed decisions about climate.
GreyParrot, UK, Waste recognition software to monitor, audit & sort waste at scale
Hawa Dawa, Germany, transforming data on air pollution into real insights for greener cities & future-oriented companies
Solytic, Germany, Maximizing the all-round performance of PV plants.
Winner: GreyParrot – The startup has gained early, significant traction amongst waste recycling plants not just in the UK, but in Italy and South Korea. They also recently won Cathay Pacific’s global tender to help the airlines monitor the waste going to landfill to support airline’s sustainability goal of zero waste to landfill by 2030. Serving a massive market, that since the pandemic is getting worse.
Hottest Cyber Startup
Aloha Browser, Cyprus, Private browser with free unlimited VPN for not so tech savvy users
Buguroo, Spain, anti-fraud solution founded in behavioural biometrics.
Picus Security, a cybersecutiry breach and attack platform
SwIDch, United Kingdom, generate OTAC (One Time Authentication Code) on your own device for each transaction without a network connection.
Winner: SwIDch has built dynamic virtual PAN (primary account number) technology for businesses offering a numberless cards solution. It’s recently scored two massive contracts within Indondesia that will secure revenues across a guaranteed 100m transactions.
Hottest EdTech Startup
Blackbullion, UK, financial education platform for university students
CoachHub, Germany, digital coaching platform for companies available globally.
Life Based Value, Italy, Transforming life experiences into sustainable training grounds for soft skills development.
Lingoda, Germany, building the one-stop language learning ecosystem centered around the live classroom.
SoSafe Cyber Security Awareness, Germany, building an awareness platform that offers employees effective and engaging training on IT security topics with a lasting impact
Winner: Blackbullion, with a growing number of university partners, Blackbullion is educating students on financial skills by teaching them how to manage financing and budgeting for their university education.
Hottest Fintech Startup
FintechOS, is the technology as a service platform that makes fast, plug and play digital transformation for financial services possible.
Funding Options, the UK’s marketplace for business finance
Holvi, the business account for sole traders and the self-employed.
TaxScouts, your Self Assessment sorted online by a certified accountant, fast,
WeVat, helping travellers get their tax refunds on their UK shopping
YuLife, life insurance that rewards your team for living well.
Winner: Fintech OS, Helping banks and insurers build digital products in weeks rather than months. In 24 months, onboarded 30 clients across the world, with $25bn under management, and opened offices in London, Amsterdam, Vienna and Bucharest.
Hottest HealthTech Startup
Axial3D, enabling surgeons to create surgical plans in the form of high-quality, patient-specific 3D anatomical models.
Foodmarble, Using breath analysis to measure the foods individuals can digest most successfully
Fundamental Surgery, the flight simulator for surgeons.
Joint Academy, connects patients with physical therapists to deliver an online treatment for chronic joint pain
Patchwork Health, digital platform helping hospitals fill vacant shifts more cost-effectively whilst stemming the tide of clinicians leaving the health service due to poor work-life balance.
Medshr, the secure and easy way to discuss cases by specialty with verified medical colleagues.
Siilo,a secure medical messenger platform designed for healthcare professionals
Winner: Joint Academy – combining the best of both worlds, access to physical therapists along with digital tracking and reminders to change outcomes for the better for chronic joint pain.
Hottest Mobility Startup
Cake, Sweden, Light, clean and silent. CAKE develops high performance electric off-road motorbikes.
Dott, Netherlands. offering our dockless, shared electrical scooters and bikes as alternatives for short-distance travel.
Einride, Sweden. Building both autonomous and driver operated electric trucks
Tier Mobile, Germany, sustainable micro-mobility sharing-solutions, including electric scooters.
Winner: Einride, Helping drive road freight to a more sustainable future with all-electric trucks. Growing number of partnerships with known corporates like Lidl and Oatly.
Hottest Proptech Startup
GoodMonday, a digital Workspace Management Platform for office managers and employees
Home.ht
MQube – UK
Tiko – Spain,
Winner: GoodMonday, In Covid-challenged times, those companies that must maintain offices need more than ever an easy, efficient way to manage them. GoodMonday does this through their platform
Hottest PubTech, GovTech, RegTech, CivTech Startup
Apiax, Germany, a platform making it radically simple for companies to comply with global regulations.
Apolitical, UK, the global learning platform for government
Cyan Forensics, UK, software to help law enforcement, social media and cloud companies find and block harmful content
Parlia, UK, building an encyclopaedia of all the world’s opinions
Seed Legals, UK, platform leveraging big data and automation to give startups the exact legals they need in minutes.
Winner: Seed Legals, Helping launch UK startups by giving them a quick, fast, digital way to sort the legals.
Anthony Rose, CEO and Founder, CONFIRMED
Hottest RetailTech / eCommerce Startup
Trouva, UK. Taking the world’s best independent retail online
Typology, France, vegan, ethically sourced and manufactured, skin care range
Ave + Edam, Germany, a new generation of skincare: personalized by advanced technology and powered by the cleanest, high-performance ingredients.
Winner: Typology, The under £15 skin care range packaged in flat, rectangular bottles that post through the letterbox has tapped into the lockdown, self care zeitgeist
Hottest Sustainability Tech Startup
SPONSORED BY THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING
Infinited Fiber Company, transforming pre- and post-consumer textile waste, cellulose rich agricultural waste and cardboard into high quality, cotton-like fibers
Little Black Door, social wardrobe sharing application that lets users play, share, borrow and sell to rethink and retrain our relationship with fashion.
Otrium: an online fashion marketplace that helps independent clothing brands sell end-of-season collections
Peelpioneers: turning citrus peel waste into valuable resources
Winner: Infinited Fiber Company – For a more sustainable fashion industry -Infinited Fiber Company has created tech that allows textile waste to be used again and again, preserving 100% quality – this isn’t just recycling, but creating a new fiber.
Hottest Social Innovation Startup
Aidonic, a social fundraising and last mile aid distribution technology for humanitarian and development programs, powered by blockchain technology.
Amicable, building a kinder, better and affordable way to divorce, separate and co-parent.
DataSwift, enables everyone to benefit from the ethical data economy, by providing the essential tools to give, take and use data responsibly.
Farewill, Services that make death easier
Winner: Farewill – The easiest way to sort your will – and more importantly, for destigmatizing death and making it simple for people to take care of a bureaucratic process typically fraught with emotion.
Hottest SpaceTech Startup
Angoka, managing cybersecurity risks inherent in machine-to-machine communication (M2M) networks.
FocalPoint, transforming the capability of all GNSS systems worldwide.
SatelliteVu, High frequency thermal imagery for better decisions in the trading, environmental and insurance markets.
Winner: FocalPoint, just in time for contact tracing, Focalpoint increases the accuracy of the positioning ability of mobiles, wearables and vehicles in urban environments.
Hottest SaaS/B2B Startup
Akur8, AI-based insurance pricing solution that automates risk modeling for insurance companies while keeping full transparency and control on the models created, as required by regulators worldwide.
AnyDesk, fastest and most seamless remote desktop offering for today’s workforce
Chattermill, helping companies understand and improve customer experience, by taking unstructured customer feedback and generating clear and actionable customer experience insights.
Dixa, a customer service platform that unifies channels and data to create exceptional experiences for agents and customers alike
Funnel, helping businesses become fully data-driven and answer all their marketing and business questions easily with the help of the data they have.
Huub, an integrated logistics platform which is fully dedicated to fashion brands
Keylight, platform for managing and selling subscriptions
Polystream, the world’s most scalable 3D interactive cloud streaming platform
Winner: Funnel – Funnel collects and normalizes data from all digital marketing channels that then allows it to be analysed. With digital marketing still leading the spend, Funnel continues to grow with it.
Hottest AI Startup
Builder.ai, Platform builds, runs and scales just about anything you can think of.
Monolith AI, the first AI Platform for Engineers to enable companies to build better products, dramatically faster
Mostly AI, A Synthetic Data platform, leveraging generative AI, that allows organizations to balance their need for AI & Big Data Innovation with privacy protection.
Papercup, A tool which translates voices, allowing all audio and video content to be watched in other languages.
Sonantic, The world’s most expressive and realistic artificial voices
Speechly, Developer tool for next-generation voice user interfaces
Veriff, building an AI driven tool to verify a person’s identity online.
Winner: Builder.ai, At a time when every business needs to be digital, Builder.AI giving them an easy way to go live fast.
Hottest Blockchain Startup
Fireblocks, a Secure Asset Transfer Network that enables financial institutions to move, store and issue digital assets on-chain, without compromising speed or security.
Trustology, A custodial wallet for individuals and businesses
Ubirch, Enabling New Data Driven Business Models, by Making Data Trustworthy and Verifiable Through Blockchain Technology.
Nexus Mutual, uses the power of blockchain technology and Ethereum to allow people from all over the world to share insurance risk together without the need for an insurance company.
Winner: Fireblocks, As digital assets are increasingly held by mainstream banks, a secure and fast way for them to hold and move them.
Hottest Quantum Startup
IQM, builds useful quantum computers to generate value for the society using faster quantum processors designed hand-in-hand with their applications.
Oxford Quantum Circuits, building quantum computers, to help solve some of humanity’s most pressing challenges, from the discovery of new drugs to the development of secure communications.
Phasecraft, developing fundamental quantum theory and software for quantum computers. aims to design quantum algorithms to solve problems beyond the capacity of classical computation
Rahko, building the capability to model the behaviour of drugs and chemical reactions, and design advanced materials with vastly greater speed and accuracy than what is currently possible, at greatly reduced cost.
Winner: Rahko – building “quantum discovery” capabilities for chemical simulation, which could enable groundbreaking advances in batteries, chemicals, advanced materials and drugs.
Hottest European Accelerator
ATI Boeing
Entrepreneur First
Founders Factory
Seraphim Space Camp
SetSquared Bristol
Startup Wise Guys
Winner: SetSquared Bristol, This regional player has helped propel some of the UK’s leading startups to success, including Immersive Labs and Ultraleap (ultrahaptics).
Hottest European Seed Investor
Cavalry Ventures, an early stage venture fund based in Berlin with true value-add for founders.
Entrepreneur First, an international Talent Investor, which supports individuals to build technology companies. It has offices in seven locations; Toronto, London, Berlin, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bangalore.
Forward Partners, a venture fund meets startup studio, investing capital, craft and capability from day one…UK
Kima Ventures, Paris based – Kima Ventures is one of the world’s most active early-stage investors, investing in 2 to 3 startups per week all over the world; providing founders with funding, network, and support for them to reach the next steps of their journey.
Playfair Capital, an early-stage fund that commits to companies early and with conviction. Based in London, Playfair combines the best aspects of angel investing with a focused fund, to invest in truly ambitious founders, wherever they are in the world
Winner: Playfair Capital, Based in London, Playfair combines the best aspects of angel investing with a focused fund, to invest in truly ambitious founders, wherever they are in the world. Playfair takes a sector-agnostic approach and investments span deep tech, SaaS, marketplaces and B2B companies. We’ve backed the founders of more than 50 companies including CryptoFacilities, Mapillary, Ravelin, Stripe, Thought Machine and Trouva. Recent exit, Mapilliary sold to FB.
Hottest European VC
Accel
Balderton
EQT Ventures
Draper Esprit
IDInvest
Joyance
Northzone
Target Global
Winner: EQT Ventures, founded and run by the founders who built and scaled King, Spotify, Booking.com, Hotels.com, Huddle, and Lithium to name but a few. Building a global success story takes more than just money. It takes a whole ecosystem of expertise and support from people who’ve done it before, made plenty of mistakes along the way and learnt from them.
Hottest European Unicorn
Bolt, the European transportation platform providing ride-hailing and scooter sharing services.
DoctoLib, the online booking platform and management software provider for doctors in Europe
Klarna, the e-commerce payment solutions platform for merchants and shoppers.
Meero, the world’s leading on-demand photography platform
Winner: Bolt raised €100 million from Naya Capital Management, pushing its valuation to €1.7 billion. The Estonian business will use the funds to increase its market share by investing in its ridehailing, food delivery and e-scooter segments. The investment comes as many ridehailing companies are struggling amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Europe’s third fastest growing company in FT 1000 for the second year in a row.
The “Pathfounder” Of The Year award
Dom Hallas, Coadec, UK
Kinga Staniilawska, Poland
Richard Godfrey, UK, CEO of Rocketmakers
Taavet Hinrikus, Estonia, UK
Winner: Taavet Hinrikus
This year’s judges were:
Anne Boden
CEO
Starling Bank
Bernhard Niesner
CEO and c-founder
busuu
Chris Morton
CEO and founder
Lyst
Claire Novorol
Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer
Ada Health
Clare Jones
Chief Commercial Officer
what3words
Emily Orton
Co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer
Darktrace
Holly Jacobus
Investment Partner
Joyance Partners, New York
Husayn Kassai
CEO and co-founder
Onfido
Julia Bosch
Founder and CEO
Outfittery
Julia Hawkins
Partner
LocalGlobe
Kieran O’Neill
CEO and co-founder
Thread
Leanne Kemp
Founder & CEO
Everledger
Lina Wenner
Principal
Firstminute Capital
Luca Bocchio
Principal
Accel
Nate Lanxon (Speaker)
Editor and Tech Correspondent
Bloomberg
Tania Boler
CEO and founder
Elvie
Raph Crouan
Venture Partner
C4 Ventures
Mike Butcher (Chair)
Editor-at-large
TechCrunch
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