Tag: Founders Games

As the Fourth Industrial revolution unfolds and the world is gathering for the fight against the climate change, the development of green and clean technologies emerges as one of the key factors that will shape our common future. The specifics of this important sector implies that big part of the innovations comes not from the big corporate players who are struggling with the difficult process of digital transformation of their business, but from small startup companies, capable to disrupt the industry with their ideas. Last week, the most influential event for digital economy and innovation in the CEE region, Webit.Festival Europe, presented to its international audience ten green companies from Bulgaria and Northern Europe and dedicated a special Green zone for them. The names of the companies involved are Desertcontrol, CO2 Cards, Sweet Home, Greencorp.io, Galex, Teraloop Ltd., Enerwall, Narcine, Sea Harmony Ltd. and QQ Natural. All of them were part of the big Founders Games challenge in which 100 startups, selected from more than 2450 candidates, competed for a €200 000 seed investment. The big prize was provided by the Executive Chairman of Webit Foundation Plamen Russev, the Co-founder of Telerik Academy Vasil Terziev, the Co-founder of Imperia Online Dobroslav Dimitrov and the Co-founder and CEO of Chaos Group Peter Mitev. The participants in the competition received free exhibition space and tickets for the festival, as well as the opportunity to present their ideas on the Webit’s Startup stage in front of business leaders and investors. You may find the names of the 100 Founders Games participants and more information about their activity here. Among the members of the investors jury were proven experts like Prof. Shafi Ahmed (Co-founder of Virtual Medics and Medical Realities), Lisa Latts (Deputy Chief Health Officer for IBM Watson), Jonas Jacobi (VP, Cloud and Mobile Technology Strategy, IBM), Sohaila Ouffata (Investment Principal BMW i Ventures), Sridhar Iyengar (CEO, Elemental Machines), Gareth Williams (Founder and CEO of Skyscanner) and a number of top experts from the world’s largest companies. The Nordic startups arrived in Bulgaria with the help of Innovation Norway program - the Norwegian Government’s most important tool for innovation and development of local companies and industries. On April 25th and 26th Webit.Festival gathered in Sofia Tech Park more than 5000 attendees from Fortune 500 companies and major brands, policy makers, innovative founders and academia representatives, coming from more than 90 countries. The event’s agenda included 12 parallel conferences, deployed on 4 stages and covering topics, such as Marketing & Innovation, Digital Economy Leadership, Smart Cities, Mobility, Digital Transformation, FinTech & Blockchain, Big Data & Cloud, Security & Privacy, Health & Wellbeing, IoE and Software Development. [easingslider id="4954"]  

The biotech company CONELUM won the €200 000 seed investment in this year’s Founders Games. The event was part of the agenda of Webit.Festival Europe - the most influential event for digital economy and technology in the CEE region. An international jury of investors evaluated the pitches of the 100 finalists from 2450 candidates in the dedicated startup zone. With over 93% startup failure overall rate, the selected Webit startups for the Founders Games’s semi-finals in the past 7 years have less than 30% failure rate. Being among the Webit's Founders Games startup list is a statement of the company's credibility, innovation and potential in front of enterprise and investors as well as a great marketing opportunity. This year’s event presented to its international audience some of the most interesting Green startups from Northern Europe, that arrived in Bulgaria with the help of Innovation Norway program - the Norwegian Government’s most important instrument for fostering innovation and development of local companies and industries. Among the jury members you could see names like Prof. Shafi Ahmed (Virtual Medics & Medical Realities), Lisa Latts (IBM Watson Health), Jonas Jacoby (Cloud and Mobile Technology Strategy, IBM), Sohaila Ouffata (BMW i Ventures) and a number of representatives of the largest companies in the world. The top 5 companies had the chance to pitch their projects on Webit’s biggest stage and to compete for the grand prize in the challenge. The finalists were the Austrian health tech company Tec-Innovation, which develops an intelligent high-tech shoe that detects obstacles and improve the life quality of blind people, the Latvian biotech startup CONELUM, which has created a proprietary joint-solution for ultra-fast microbiological diagnostics & enumeration at ultra-high sensitivity level, the Slovenian company Feelif, which enables blind and visually impaired people to feel shapes on a standard touchscreen, Amiko (Italy), which delivers medication adherence solutions for chronic respiratory and diabetes care, powered by our proprietary Quantified Medicine technology and the Bulgarian startup Melissa Climate - an IoT company which changes the way people use the appliances they already have by connecting them to the Internet and enabling the end-user to monitor and control their home remotely. The final decision on the winner of the big prize was taken by four investors - the Executive Chairman of Webit.Foundation Plamen Russev, the Co-founder of Telerik Academy Vassil Terziev, the Co-founder of Imperia Online Dobroslav Dimitrov and the Co-founder and CEO of Chaos Group Peter Mitev. Their evaluation was based on five main factors - team capacity, project scalability, business approach, marketing approach and uniqueness of the idea.

This year’s edition of Webit.Festival Europe will be unprecedented in its size for the CEE region. The number of attendees will be nearly 30% higher than last years. The event will be held on April 25-26 in Sofia Tech Park under the patronage of the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, the Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova and the European Commission. After the huge interest in the past days and weeks, Webit Team is proud to announce that we are building a new conference hall and will have hundreds of additional seats for our valued guests. The Red Stage of the event will be exported outside the venue building to accommodate the huge number of visitors. Right now we are building thousands of square meters of facilities in addition to the buildings already involved. The official agenda of Webit.Festival includes 12 parallel conferences on topics, such as Marketing & Innovation, Digital Economy Leadership, Smart Cities, Mobility, Digital Transformation, FinTech & Blockchain, Big Data & Cloud, Security & Privacy, Health & Wellbeing, IoE and Software Development. Among our speakers you will meet Fortune 500 representatives, top brands, policymakers, founders of some of the most innovative businesses and the most exciting startups, not only in the region, but all over the world. This year 5062 people have registered for the event. They are coming from more than 90 countries. The leaders of some of the largest innovative tech companies in the world will arrive in Sofia along with founders of businesses like Skyscanner, valued at more than $1.74 billion. Webit attracted 2425 startup companies who think of the festival as a step towards their success. 100 of them were selected and will receive free-of-charge stands, tickets for the event and an opportunity to meet unparalleled selection of top enterprise leaders and investors, while presenting themselves in front of the world. They will also get the chance to compete for a €200 000 seed investment in our Founders Games. The market valuation of the selected startups is more than $1 billion, and so far they have attracted multimillion investments. With over 93% startup failure overall rate, the selected Webit startups for the Founders Games’s semi-finals in the past 7 years have less than 30% failure rate. Being among the Webit's Founders Games startup list is a statement of the company's credibility, innovation and potential in front of enterprise and investors as well as a great marketing opportunity.

With less than a week prior to the event, we are proud to announce that the tickets for Webit.Festival Europe are officially sold out! Right now, we have 4806 registered attendees from more than 90 countries. All of them shall connect with some of the world’s top digital and tech leaders, investors, founders and media, during the two-day agenda of the festival. Webit.Festival is one of the most influential digital and technology events in Europe. This year’s edition of the festival will again take place in Sofia on 25-26 April. The event’s motto is re:Inventing Europe’s Future. It is held under the patronage of the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, the Mayor of the Sofia Mrs Yordanka Fandakova and is supported by the European Commission. The event is part of Global Webit Series, that includes Istanbul (Webit.EMEA), Dubai (Webit.MENA), Singapore (Webit.APAC), New Delhi (Webit.INDIA) and Sofia (Webit.Festival Europe) thus bridging digital Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. Our attendees will hear about the future of Virtual and Mixed Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Marketing, Mobility, Smart Cities, FinTech, IoE, Health and Software Development from 300 top level speakers at Webit’s 12 parallel conferences. You may see the full festival agenda here. Among them you will find some of the companies on the Fortune’s 500, top brands, policymakers, founders of some of the most innovative businesses and the most exciting startups, not only in the region, but throughout the world. Part of our mission is helping startups with great ideas present themselves to a wider audience and giving them a chance to compete for a €200 000 seed investment in Webit’s Founders Games. One hundred startup companies with a total market valuation of more than $2 billion will take part in this year’s edition of the competition. They were selected from over 2450 applicants from all over Europe. On April 25 Webit will present its annual Awards during a glamorous black tie ceremony. The evening dresses and suits will be only a fraction of the incredible experience for the hundreds of attendees. Limited amount of seats are still available on the website of the event. The winners in the various categories will have the honor to receive their awards from some of the world leaders in their fields. If you still haven’t got a pass for the event, Webit gives you the opportunity to join our waiting list! A limited number of tickets for the festival shall be presented to selected applicants.

One hundred startup companies with a total market valuation of more than $2 billion will present their innovative ideas at this year’s Webit.Festival Europe - the most influential event for the digital economy and technology in the region, part of the Webit Global Series of events and Webit Global Community. An international jury of investors will assess their pitches on the dedicated Startup stage. The best five companies will come out on the big stage of Webit and will compete for the grand prize in the Founders Games challenge - a €200 000 seed investment. The selected 100 startups are divided in 3 groups: - Pre-Seed (no investment yet but great ideas and teams) - Pos-Seed (up to €1 million investment) - ScaleUps (above €1 million to 10 million investment) The competition includes 17 startups, that have received big investments in the recent months. The Israeli company PayKey received more than $6.4 million in november. The startup enables payments within any social network, including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Twitter and any place you have a keyboard. In May the Hungarian startup SignAll received $1.72M from three investors. The company created the first sign-to-text solution that enables real-time communication for the deaf with mass market appeal. The software automatically process sign language into grammatically correct sentences. Onni Care from Finland has attracted investment for more than $1 million. The company is producing IoT baby monitor devices and a dedicated app, where parents can track day to day and long term development of their child. The Turkish startup Twentify received more than $1 million seed funding. The company provides field operations and data collection to companies by leveraging the power of crowdsourcing. It delivers Bounty, a mobile crowdsourcing platform, allowing a global mobile workforce to deliver fast and cost effective data collection to businesses. Among the members of the Jury you can see names, such as Prof. Shafi Ahmed (Consultant Surgeon and Co-founder of Virtual Medics & Medical Realities), Lisa Latts (Deputy Chief Health Officer for IBM Watson Health), Tanja Kufner (Managing Director, Startupbootcamp Smart Transportation and Energy), Jonas Jacobi (VP, Cloud and Mobile Technology Strategy, IBM), Sohaila Ouffata (Investment Principal BMW i Ventures) and a number of investors and representatives of the largest companies in the world. The startups, that are part of the challenge, were chosen from 2425 applications from across Europe, based on the uniqueness of their ideas, the capacity of their team, the opportunities for growth and their business and marketing approach. You may see a full list of the Europe Top 100 Startups here. This year, Webit.Festival will present to its international audience some of the most interesting Green startups from Northern Europe. They will arrive in Bulgaria with the help of the Innovation Norway program - the most important instrument Norwegian government use for assisting innovation and development of local businesses and industries. On April 25 and 26 the event will gather in Sofia Tech Park 5000+ visitors from over 90 countries. More than 300 speakers will share their invaluable experience from leading global companies will help us adapt to the trends that are going to change our lives fundamentally in the next few years. Here you can see a full list of the confirmed speakers at Webit.Festival, while here you can get all the information you need about the tickets for the event.

Despite the fears of a slowdown last year, the investment in European startups hit $12 billion mark, which has put 2016 on par with previous year’s record levels. The Old Continent already has prominent hubs for startups and innovation. But right now we can see that the well established centers, such as Berlin, Stockholm and London are stepping aside to an emerging destinations in Central and Eastern Europe. This has led to an increasing volume of smaller investment deals, which helped to offset the decline in larger rounds across the region. In 2016 Europe registered 943 deals between $1m and $10m. Right now, there is also a growing appetite for tech investment among the private equity funds. This year, Webit.Festival will again give promising startups from Europe and around the world the floor to present their ideas in front of top-level investors. The event will be held on 25-26 April in Sofia Tech Park under the patronage of the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, the Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova and the European Commission. We not only provide free grant for startups to get a free expo table, free festival tickets and opportunity to meet unparalleled selection of top enterprise leaders, but also a chance to win €200 000 seed investment in our Founders Games. With over 93% startup failure overall rate, the selected Webit startups for the Founders Games’s semi-finals in the past 7 years have less than 30% failure rate. Being among the Webit's Founders Games startup list is a statement of the company's credibility, innovation and potential in front of enterprise and investors as well as a great marketing opportunity. During Investments Summit you will get the chance to listen to the Partner Innovation Leader for Europe of IBM Watson Christoph Auer-Welsbach, the Vice President of IBM for Cloud and Mobile Technology Jonas Jacobi, the Global Head of Siemens Technology-to-Business Center Sven Scheuble, the CMO of AngelHack Brian Collins, the Partner at SpeedInvest Michael Schuster, the Partner at Flint Capital Sergey Gribov, the Co-founder & Managing Partner at AVentures Capital Andrey Kolodyuk, the Investment Director of 3TS Capital Partners Marius Ghenea, the Co-lead for Growth Capital & Venturing Services at Deloitte Sriram Prakash, the Investment Director of iTech Capital Alexey Telnov, the Advisor of 8VC Jon Soberg and the Partner at Hummingbird Ventures Pamir Gelenbe. Here you can see a full list of the confirmed speakers at Webit.Festival, while here you can get all the information you need about the tickets for the event.

Despite fears of Brexit disruption, 2016 was really a roller coaster year for European startups. According to French investment advisors Clipperton, EU startups have collected $12 billion of investments for the year, which is comparable to the record levels of 2015 for investment on the continent. It is still too soon to measure the impact of Britain’s decision on the startup market, but the dynamics of the two-year process of leaving the EU will have to be monitored closely. Experts believe that this year there will be several main engines for startup development in the tech sector. During 2016, big corporations invested lots of money in better predictions with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. In 2017 we can expect a lot smaller companies to take part in the AI revolution. Part of this is due to the fact that many universities started classes to educate students about the possibilities of this exciting new tech. Gartner already identified AI and machine learning as one of the top 10 strategic tech trends, that expands the spectrum of implementations to physical devices, apps and services. With the development of AI there is a lot of room for growth for startups, that specialize in chatbots. Business will look for bots more often than ever to help reduce its spending on customer service. Chatbots will be hot in the years to come, just because there are great way for corporate optimization. More than 85 percent of customer interactions will not include a human being by 2020, and chatbots will be the No. 1 consumer application of AI during the next five years. Another generator of startups is the cybersecurity sector. Insiders say that after every hackaton in the developed world, a new cybersecurity startup pops up to address the problem. This field is full of opportunities for new companies to step in, and we all expect the number of threats online to continue to rise. According to a report by Frost and Sullivan the implementation of blockchain technology can put an end to cyber attack. Until now many thought that blockchain has only the potential to fuel innovation in FinTech sector. European startups are really on the rise with the help of many accelerators and events like Webit.Festival Europe. During this year’s Founders Games an international board and jury of investors and enterprise leaders are selecting semi finalists from over 1500 applications. Five of them will get to the finals and one will win a seed investment. Last year the award was €200 000, but this year the organizers hope it will reach €500 000. With over 93% startup failure overall rate, the selected Webit startups for the Founders Games’s semi-finals in the past 7 years have less than 30% failure rate. Being among the Webit's Founders Games startup list is a statement of the company's credibility, innovation and potential in front of enterprise and investors as well as a great marketing opportunity. Webit gives startups access to a community of over 100 000, including some of the most influential people on 5 continents. The festival consists of 12 parallel summits - a fact that gives the unique opportunity for targeted networking with some of the best in the industry.

Do you like playing games and winning? Founders games is about business though! Founders games is a unique chance for a startup to win 200 000 euro seed investment.  Webit Foundation receives thousands of applications for each Founders Games contest around the world at all Webit events in Europe, Asia, MIddle East… Startups apply and if approved at first and second stage, they receive the opportunity to exhibit for free at a Startup village and pitch on one of the stages at Webit Festival. Then after two days of live pitches the jury selects 5 among all pitching startups, that are around 200 normally. And these 5 go on the big stage and participate in the ceremony of Founders Games, where in front of our Final jury - a group of successful entrepreneurs, credible investors and inspiring business angels, they prove why their business is the one that should receive 200 000 euro seed investment. The stirring competition at Webit Festival 2016 was won by AdGuard, a software for any device, blocking annoying ads, online tracking and protecting computer from malware. Check out the other finalists here. At Webit Foundation we see great ideas appear every day. But we also know how hard it is to make someone believe and invest in your idea. We also believe that it’s not only about investment but it’s more about real business opportunities that enterprises may provide because they need you. They need to innovate through collaboration with startups and this is what we do for them. We are not a startup event - they are so many and we are not - we have never been such. As international media call us, Webit is - the most friendly for startups ENTERPRISE event! And we know it works - we have been called “crazy“ 7 years ago when we started to mix “white shirts” and T-shirt guys and girls that drink beer during the events. And yes, we were enough crazy to prove the case and now already it's a world well known mechanism for not only events but also for exchange of innovations. Your company is eligible if you’re active in the following disciplines: Advertising, Biotech, Digital Commerce, Digital Entertainment, eLearning, Fintech, Games, Hardware, Health, Infrastructure, Money, Non-Profit, Social & dating, Travel, Xaas, Energy Efficiency, Space, Mobility, IoE. If not among these maybe you tell us rising new category? Please share! The 5 major milestones defining the finalists and the winner are: Team capacity, Project Scalability, Business approach, Marketing approach, Uniqueness of the idea. If you get selected just book your stay in Sofia - digital capital of the new markets and it will be three days of fun in the city called among top 10 cities to live in Europe! Every year the Webit Global series of events gathers one of the largest global communities of people inspired by technology and driving digital transformation in business and in the society. Uniting speakers, attendees, exhibitors and participants, we create a platform for dialogue between policy makers, enterprise and entrepreneurs. Apply here and show us you’re the best! We bet you can! *** About Webit.Festival 2017: Webit.Festival is the European edition of the Webit Series of events, which will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, 25-27 April, 2017. The festival consists of several parallel conferences and events, workshops, roundtables and exhibitions, startup village with selected from around the world startups.    The event is under the patronage of the Mayor of Sofia Mrs Yordanka Fandakova and supported by the European Commission. The agenda includes Tech Summit, Marketing and Innovation Summit, Developers Summit, Smart Cities Summit, New Economy Leader's Summit, Startup Village, Pitch stage and number of workshops and round table discussions, Night Urban Summit with 60 + meetups on different topics that will gather people to network by interest and explore Night Sofia! The agenda for the founders includes conferences, meetings with investors, academy for startups and special stage for them to pitch their companies in front of a jury of investors, journalists and leaders of Fortune 500 companies. Webit.Festival is the most influential event on the tech and digital industry in the region. For all this information and even more, visit our website www.webit.bg .

The startup friendly Enterprise event* Webit.Festival Europe just got friendlier!

Here is another BIG € 200'000 reason for the startups to apply for Webit's Founders Games, get a free expo stand, 2 free festival tickets and win € 200'000 seed investment!

Not a startup? Great! Webit is the only enterprise event to join and to explore great business opportunities with 75% C-level executives among the attendees as well as to have a walk among the exhibiting top European startups, get inspired, take advantage from collaborating with innovators or explore talent acquisition opportunities! If you still do not have your ticket - book today! Already registered - see you in Sofia! More about the € 200'000 A group of prominent successful entrepreneurs, investors and business angels have just joined me and together we announce a € 200'000 seed investment for the winner of Webit's Founders Games Challenge. Please share with your network of entrepreneurs that If they are not among the 930+ startups who have already applied - they have 5 days to do it! For all who have applied and were selected for exhibitors and to pitch in front of the jury -  good luck! Their Founders Games just got € 200'000 more challenging and exciting! :) See you in Sofia on 19-20 April @ Webit.Festival Europe! Warm regards!  

Plamen Russev  Chairman, Webit Foundation | Global Webit Series