Europe’s best digital entrepreneurs are under the spotlight tonight with the presentation of the Europioneer Awards in Amsterdam (Update – March 2023: The startup seems to be no longer in business under this website, and we therefore deactivated the original link).
The ‘European Entrepreneurs of the Year’ this year were announced as Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss of the Berlin-based “social sound platform” SoundCloud. This award was a win for Jon Reynolds of the London-based company SwiftKey, who now has the title ‘Young European Entrepreneur of the Year’ (under 30 years-old).
The European Commission sponsors the awards as part of Startup Europe, the Commission’s six-part plan to accelerate, connect and celebrate local entrepreneurship ecosystems in Europe, so that tech startups not only start in Europe, but stay in Europe.
On congratulating the Europioneer winners, Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes said: “SoundCloud and SwiftKey destroy the myth that all good ideas start and end in Silicon Valley. These companies have great futures in Europe, and they show us that it’s sexy and enriching to be your own boss, to create your own job.”
The Europioneer awards are a partnership between the European Commission and The Next Web, and this year 908 nominations were received across Europe for the awards. The winners were selected by a distinguished panel of judges from Europe’s tech and startup community. The other finalists in the Europioneer Awards were:
European Tech Entrepreneur of the Year finalists
1. Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Victor Jacobsson, Niklas Adalberth (company: Klarna)
2. Mikael Hed, Niklas Hed (company: Rovio)
3. Michael Acton Smith (company: Mind Candy)
4. Jens Begemann (company: Wooga)
Young European Tech Entrepreneur of the Year finalists (30 and under)
1. Daniel Ek (company: Spotify)
2. Hiroki Takeuchi, Matt Robinson (company: GoCardless)
3. Christian Reber (company: Wunderkinder)
4. Daniel Marhely (company: Deezer)
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