TechCrunch Europe threw a dedicated startup pitch event yesterday in London and – if we do say so ourself – it was a great success. We plan to do more of these kinds of events and, as I pointed out at the time, we will NEVER charge startups to pitch. They are selected by editorial, on merit only.

The winner of the pitch competition was FestBuzz (pictured). The other startups to pitch were Kyubid, Aware Monitoring, Social Safe, Yoomoot, Fiabee, Notion Learning, Audioboo, Kohive, En-twyn and mywidz.

There’s a great write-up of the startups over at TheStartup.eu, a blog run by Techcrunch Europe’s Italian contributor Stefano Bernardi who also took some great photos.

Thanks to BitchBuzz for coming along and taking some more great photos of the event. If you have any more yourself please let us know in the comments and also please tag them with “TCLondon”.

The event also saw the launch of TechHub (more info).

Thanks also to our awesome speakers and sponsors, below:

Nadjm Maz, BSKYB
“How startups interact with and sell to large corporates”

Barak Rabinowitz, Amuso.com
“Skilled gaming as part of the social networking framework”

Wil Harris, Channel Flip
“Why raising startup funding in the UK is different”

Scott Rafer, CEO at Lookery, Co-founder of Mashery
“How to handle closing your startup”

PARTNERS

Seedcamp

Seedcamp is a programme created to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe by connecting next generation developers and entrepreneurs with over 400 mentors from a top-tier network of company builders; including seed investors, serial entrepreneurs, product experts, HR and PR specialists, marketers, lawyers, recruiters, journalists and venture capitalists. Seedcamp acts as a micro seed fund to invest in startup companies, mainly through our flagship event Seedcamp Week, which takes place in September every year. To make sure we are honing in on all the new startup talent, we also runMini Seedcamp programmes throughout several startup hubs around Europe from January-June. Seedcamp’s standard investment is €30-50k. Following Seedcamp Week, the companies who receive investment stay in London for 3 months to grow and develop their company, building key and lasting business relationships along the way to help them sustain a viable business.

TECHCRUNCH PITCH! SPONSOR:

UKTI

UK Trade & Investment is the government organisation that helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy. We also help overseas companies bring their high quality investment to the UK’s dynamic economy – acknowledged as Europe’s best place from which to succeed in global business. UK Trade & Investment offers expertise and contacts through its extensive network of specialists in the UK, and in British embassies and other diplomatic offices around the world. We provide companies with the tools they require to be competitive on the world stage. For further information please visit www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7215 8000.

MEDIA PARTNER/CO-SPONSOR:

Press Association

The Press Association is the UK’s trusted source of compelling multimedia content, placed at the hear of the media. Press Association delivers everything from breaking news and showbiz interviews to real-time sports results, TV listings and weather forecasts. Increasingly, content is delivered to clients digitally, and we are actively developing new digital products and services for media and online clients. For more information visit www.pressassociation.com

DRINKS SPONSOR:

Bootlaw

Bootlaw is a free boot camp for emerging technology, internet and digital businesses and the professionals working in them who want to learn more about the legal issues they face. It is brought to you by Barry Vitou and Danvers Baillieu, the friendly lawyers at Winston & Strawn in London. For more information go to www.bootlaw.com