EIT Digital’s startup contest Idea Challenge activated entrepreneurs all over Europe. Out of the 750 registered teams 461 tech startups from 26 EU countries aim to scale-up through participation in the second edition of the competition. Per category 10 companies will be invited to one of the eight finals in eight European cities at the end of 2015 to compete for up to 40,000 Euro and support from the pan-European Business Development Accelerator of EIT Digital.
Willem Jonker, CEO of EIT Digital: “We are excited to meet the 80 finalists of EIT Digital Idea Challenge in autumn. Many promising startups applied. We are looking forward to help them grow and scale-up in Europe and beyond so they become Europe’s next success stories!”
Besides the extensive support provided by the pan-European accelerator of EIT Digital, startups can win prize money in each of the eight topics: 40,000 Euro for the winner, 25,000 Euro for second place and 15,000 Euro for third place.
Further facts & figures on EIT Digital Idea Challenge 2015
Startups from 26 EU countries applied, 20% of the submissions came from Germany, followed by France (14%) and Italy (9%). 15 per cent of applications generate from CEE countries.
One third (37 per cent) of submissions came from female founders or co-founders.
The majority of teams (57 per cent) applied in the three categories Urban Life & Mobility, Health & Wellbeing and Internet of Things (IoT).
Last minute race: 50 per cent applied within the last 24h of submission.
40 per cent of the young companies are already profitable or will be in 2016.
Close to one third of the teams secured patents already.
75 per cent of the startups attracted by Idea Challenge offer B2B solutions and provide valuable tech innovation.
Further information on the finals and the selection criteria for finalists can be found online.
A graphic can be downloaded here.
About EIT Digital
EIT Digital* is a leading European open innovation organisation. Our mission is to foster digital technology innovation and entrepreneurial talent for economic growth and quality of life in Europe. We bring together entrepreneurs from a partnership of over 130 top European corporations, SMEs, start-ups, universities and research institutes.
EIT Digital invests in strategic areas to accelerate the market uptake of research-based digital technologies and to bring entrepreneurial talent and leadership to Europe. Our innovation and education activities are organised in and around our co-location centres, where students, researchers, engineers, business developers and entrepreneurs come together to drive the digitalisation of society.
EIT Digital is a Knowledge and Innovation Community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). Since 2010, EIT Digital is consistently mobilising talents, ideas, technologies, investments and business across Europe and beyond to stimulate disruptive digital innovation. The headquarter is in Brussels with co-location centres in Berlin, Eindhoven, Helsinki, London, Paris, Stockholm, Trento, as well as in Budapest and Madrid.
