Tag: startups

Within less than a week, Sofia will host the biggest startup event in the world - the Founders Games, part of the agenda of Webit.Festival Europe 2019. Our team chose the top 200 among 4000 candidates from all over the world. They will all be able to compete for the big prize - an investment of up to €200 000. But the price is just a small part of the opportunities the startups get with their participation in the festival. They will not only be able to present their work to 10 000 Webit visitors, but also impress over 500 potential investors. The event strengthens the role of Sofia as a Digital Capital - a title that Forbes gave the city in 2016 after Webit.Festival. This year 27 of the major European cities are competing to host Webit. The winner will be announced during this year’s event on 14th and 15th of May. In the latest edition of the Founders Games you can see a total of 9 startups coming to Sofia from the Silicon Valley. This is another indication that over the years Webit has succeeded in establishing itself and Bulgaria as a technological destination. Even companies that are created in the world’s center of investment are inclined to travel thousands of kilometers to be part of the event. Webit provides its startups with event tickets, exhibition spaces and an unprecedented opportunity to show their business to top audiences. Through the years, Founders Games became an investment platform for matchmaking hand-picked early-stage/post seed stage startups and Round A scaleups with investors, corporates and media. Webit was among the first in the world (11 years ago) to start connecting the startup and the enterprise worlds. We were the first to provide grants (over €1 million yearly) to selected startups. A total of 65% of all startups participating in the Founders Games through the years receive the necessary funding up to 6 month after Webit. At the same time the mortality rate is just 30%, compared to an average of 95% failures in the startup sector. “I am proud of the fact that we are changing the image of Sofia and Bulgaria all over the world. So far, 9 Silicon Valley based startups (and 4000 from around the world) have applied for the Founders Games”, said the executive chairman of Webit.Foundation dr. Plamen Russev. Webit.Foundation is more than just speaking, more than just judging. We wish to provide startups with the best tools to help them sell their idea with the encouragement and guidelines provided by our speakers. 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.

We believe that only by supporting the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and empowering the women in business and politics - we may improve the state of well-being globally. Thus for the past 10 years Webit.Foundation is providing millions of Euros in grants to startups and innovators.

We select and present 1500 of the best European startups out of over 4000 applications!

When was the last time you have pitched in front of such audience of investors, global business leaders and media from 111 countries?

If you run a startup - you never have to pay* to join Europe's innovation and tech event - Webit! You just need to apply here and in case you are selected - you receive everything for free, including: - 1500 free tickets to Webit and - 200 free exhibition slots to present your company in front of 10,000 global business leaders, investors and media. Webit is among the very few global, large scale events where the enterprise partners and attending investors and media meet and connect with pre-selected and already vetted startups in 3 stages: - pre-seed - post seed - scaleups (with up to 10 million EUR investment). ... and investors don't have to hide their badges to protect themselves from the wannabee millionaires' meaningless pitches :) ... but the opposite - the investors visit Webit's startups expo with top selected startups as they don't  want to miss even a single opportunity to meet with the best European founders at Webit and invest!

Investor/Enterprise leader?

Should you want to join the Webit's Founders Games sponsors and partners and have first access to the most innovative European companies in areas such as AI, Mobility, Health, Energy, Blockchain, Automation, Fintech... to name a few - contact Aniela Ruseva by fill in this form and the Webit team shall contact you shortly.

 

10'000 people from 111 countries visited the Webit City

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Don't miss the 2019 edition. Book your ticket now

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Webit.Festival Europe 2018 in numbers:

- 10'000+ ATTENDEES (7200 Webit.Festival participants and 3000 Webit.X visitors) - 231 EXHIBITORS - 422 SPEAKERS - 110 HOURS of conference agenda & amazing content - 75% C-level (executive) ATTENDANCE - 111 VISITING COUNTRIES - 150 of THE BEST EUROPEAN STARTUPS AND SCALEUPS - 1000+ POLICY MAKERS The European Tech, Digital Economy and Policy event for 2018 was a huge success! The Innovate! Summit and the Plenary Session, chaired by the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda and Society Mariya Gabriel, hosted some of the worlds digital, tech and policy leaders gathered to re:Invent Europe's Future.        

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The Webit City has welcomed 10'000 global leaders and they all requested a residency :)

Here are just 5 quotes out of over 1000 interviews with the Webit City residents: "Unparalleled global business and policy networking at its highest level!" "The most amazing business event with a festival experience" "We basically do business here" "This is the only event where top EU policy makers and global business leaders exchange thoughts and share valuable discussions" “We got more investors visiting our expo booth compared to any other event we have been to”                            

 

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200+ exhibitors at over 20'000 sq.m Webit City expo & business networking area

From global tech, health, fintech, cybersecurity, mobility, blockchain, entertainment, AI, cloud leaders to smart jet fighters - they all were at Webit.Festival Europe 2018 represented by their global or EMEA HQs. Also hosted national pavilions.                                    

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12 independent summits and over 50 meetups

421 speakers have created over 110 hours  of conference agenda & amazing content within 12 independent summits.                                               Founders Games winner of 200'000 EUR cheque is BIOO from Portugal.                   Cities 4.0 Summit, Digital Entertainment and Media Summit, Money Summit and Blockchain Summit

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Webit Night Urban Summit

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                  The Global Webit Awards Ceremony and The Chairman' Dinner by Dr. Russev

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                  The World Famous Webit Party, powered by Playboy, Fashion TV and Dorcel

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                Webit.X - gathering and inspiring 3000 young future leaders

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Missed the 2018 edition? Don’t miss the 2019! Book your ticket now at super earlybird rate

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Apply for our Founders Games and get the chance of being among the 200 startups presenting their innovative idea in front of investors, business leaders and all attendees of Webit.Festival 2018. Corporates & startups. Two forces of the business world which are as much different as they need each other. Brian Collins (AngelHack), Jonas Jacobi (IBM) & Matthias Schanze (Siemens) put some light on this complex relationship Mr. Schanze described as”Dancing with an elephant”

The open API (Application Programming Interfaces) revolution took of 5 years ago

A familiar example of APIs in action is the ability to sign into different accounts or services with our Facebook login. We can log into Pinterest, for example, by using our Facebook login credentials. That revolution was built on the idea that corporates could start opening up their technology for developers & startups. By doing so they were able to find a whole new strategy. In that way, the strategy shifted. It shifted from a B2B or a B2C focus to a Business to Developer focus. As such, innovation programming quickly went on the rise. Corporates began looking at developers and startups as a whole new strategy to their strategic plans and in doing so they’ve started working and finding ways to engage with startups & developers at an earlier and earlier stage.

Why the relationship between startups & corporates is important

Big companies have more than enough funds to put in place and do their own research. What these companies have noted is that a lot of innovation occurs outside the company itself. That’s one of the main reasons companies like IBM, Siemens and others of this size have been involved in the startup ecosystem for quite some time already. Startups do set trends and it’s important for large corporations to always keep an eye on new trends and new technologies that are emerging fast. So what are these companies looking for? Big ideas. Great technologies. And innovations. Innovations that disrupt industries and possibly create new markets. Transformation, not only for the company itself but for its clients as well.

Value proposition to the corporates

Corporates are well aware that they cannot invent everything by themselves. Co-creation and co-innovation with startups is a key point of their development. The transition is turning from internal Research & Development departments inside of corporates towards creating an external community, a liquid R&D force in essence. There’s the notion that most big corporates engage with, acquire or invest their funds in startups that already make some millions of revenue but in reality that is not the case anymore. The practice of an early engagement has grown immensely and that calls for more fair chances for more startups.    

At Endeavour's Dare to Scale Rosen Plevneliev - the president of Bulgaria 2012-2017, Fernando Fabre - president of Enveavor Global, Vassil Terziev - Co-founder of Telerik Acacdemy had a panel discussion about the value about Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, moderated by Plamen Russev - Chairman of WEBIT Foundation.

Strengths to focus on and weaknesses to work on

The discussion went through 3 stages - Bulgaria, Region and Global. Vassil Terziev took over the first stage going through the last 10 years of developing an entrepreneurial spirit in Bulgaria and bringing all the components of a working Ecosystem together. They include people, events which gather several thousand people together talking about the future. New and new formats are coming to Bulgaria every year. "The growth is a function not only of time, but also of communication and aligning the economic interests. In order something to be sustainable it has to make sense for everybody involved. And this is what is still missing."  - mr. Terziev said, but staying still optimistic about what the Technology Ecosystem that's being built can do for the other sectors in Bulgaria.

It's a kind of magic

"I believe in magic big time. We need the magic of giving back."  mr. Plamen Russev We already have the Ecosystem startups and they are growing but do we need to focus on scale ups more? "They will make Bulgaria a better place, Through WEBIT, through Enveavor and other formats we will build those scale ups who will give back to the community." We need an ecosystem where every single person grows within the idea that he or she has to give back to the community – like the Israerli ecosystem. “You can’t say “I’ve done enough, now it’s time to give back” – no, you give back all the time. ”

The Local Heroes

Mr. Rosen Plevneliev talked about the ambition of Bulgaria and how he shared his thoughts with several entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley. “You are as big as your dreams are, not as big as your territory is. And to be globally strong, we need to be locally strong. This is what you, the local heroes are doing right now.”

A map of ecosystems

Mr. Fernando Fabre took the audience on a world tour of the Ecosystems – from Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Silicon Valley, New York to Tel Aviv, Beirut and so on. He shared his opinion that it all goes down to inspiration. Big entrepreneurs inspire others – they grow and do the same – thus multiplying the mindset. “You call it giving back, Local heroes, I call it multiplying effect these are three terms that are exactly the same.” Webit Foundation commits its annual funds to foster the development of the startup and innovation ecosystems in the regions our global events take place. Founders Games is the startup competition in the program of Webit.Festival Europe. During the event we not only provide free grant for startups to get a free expo table, free festival tickets and opportunity to meet unparalleled selection top enterprise leaders from all around the world + investors, but also an opportunity to WIN €200 000 seed investment! Find out more about the Founder games here.

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.

History of the human race is full of stories of amazing leaps, from migrating out of Africa to landing our spacecrafts on other planets and even asteroids. Nearly 50 years after first human steps on the Moon the space industry is completely different, than it was in the 20th century. Contrary to perceptions, space industry is extremely traditional because of the high costs and need of minimal risk. But now private companies are beginning to take the initiative and to change our ideas about space as a place, reserved for government agencies. There was a time when NASA and Roskosmos were the two main engines of our dreams for space exploration. But over the last 15 years that has changed with tens of space companies entering the market with serious plans for building rockets and colonizing new world. Today almost everyone is aware of Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin, mostly due to the popularity of their celebrity entrepreneur owners. If their efforts for creating a reusable booster succeeds, this can lower the costs for space launch with as much as 60%. And this is not even the whole picture. Hundreds of small startups have popped up for the new space race. Companies like Astrobotics are charging $1.2 million per kilo to take your stuff to the moon, while experts in Saber Aeronautics are using video game tech to help you create missions and operate satellites with minimum training. During last year’s Webit.Festival in Sofia the project coordinator and engineer at European Space Agency (ESA) Lluc Diaz explained that because of the numerous private initiatives mankind is starting to look for the exploration of deep space. In Europe, all this is happening not only with private capital, but through programs for public-private partnerships. Right now ESA is working with more than 400 startups, helping them with expert knowledge about implementation of space tech in our everyday life. Great example of this kind of partnership is the success of companies like Planet Labs, that creates smaller and cheaper satellites that are easier to launch in space. This year on Webit.Festival you can find out more about the future of space industry and exploration of the Universe from top level speakers, likе the Chairman of Breakthrough Prize Foundation Simon P. Worden. The author of more than 150 scientific papers in astrophysics space sciences and strategic studies will talk about the search of life beyond the Earth and deep space traveling.

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 .