Voting in The Europas Awards has gone live. Held annually, The Europas are the main European Awards for early stage Internet and Mobile technology startups. The are selected by a combination of an expert Advisory Board (which changes every year) and voting by the industry itself. The whole thing comes together on a special awards night in London, on November 17.
Of course, out of the sheer need to filter the thousands of people in tech startups across Europe, the Awards can’t cover every single startup and entrepreneur. But what you see below are the ones this year’s Board – chaired by myself – picked out as representing the best new early stage startups in Europe, and the people making it all happen.
Everyone here is a winner already. Not a single company or person here is not amazing at what they do already. But in the end, there is always a filter. So this is your chance to feed in your choices for the best in Europe. From this will come the final finalists for the awards on November 17 in London. Voting ends on November 1st. You can vote only once in each category. So get voting!
(See also the Europas on Twitter and Facebook)
In addition, pan-European VC DFJ Esprit is to offer a £50,000 convertible loan to the Grand Prix winner of The Europas Tech Startup Awards.
The loan (often called a convertible note) will convert into equity at the startup’s next funding round on the same terms as the new investor (i.e. no discount) and will not be interest bearing. The loan will be ‘plain vanilla’ in all other respects (i.e. no additional rights). The winner will have a week to decide whether to take the loan or not.
It’s just another sign the European tech scene has never looked better. See you on the night in London, November 17!
UPDATE: Voting has now closed. Here is a list of the finalists.
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AND FINALLY
The Europas Grand Prix Award
(The best of the best, as chosen by The Europas)