Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Infrastructure and Digital Finance are areas booming worldwide, and they are strategically highly important for Europe to master its economical and societal challenges.
In any field, developing new businesses is difficult, but growing isn’t less challenging. When scaling and going abroad, European startups face a number of barriers including the fragmented market and investor landscape.
“If Europe’s goal is to lead digital transformation worldwide, innovation must be enabled to expand across borders.” says Dominik Krabbe, EIT Digital Challenge Lead.
EIT Digital is the leading European digital innovation and entrepreneurial education organisation. It delivers breakthrough digital innovations to the market and breeds entrepreneurial talent for economic growth and improved quality of life in Europe.
Portuguese Sensefinity was awarded in 2015 by EIT Digital as the most innovative European startup in the IoT field. Now you can also join this wall of fame in Europe.
EIT Digital just announced the launch of the EIT Digital Challenge – the annual Europe-wide call for the most innovative startups in digital technology ready to scale up.
Startups can apply in one of the five fields mentioned above. In each category, ten teams will be invited to pitch in front of expert juries at one of five final events taking place in different cities across Europe in autumn 2016.
The three best teams in each category will be awarded. They will get access to EIT Digital’s pan-European innovation network with more than 130 partners that bring together Europe’s leading corporations, SMEs, startups, universities and research institutes in the field of digital technologies. They will also have the chance to join the EIT Digital Accelerator for a full year. On top, the first place in each category will receive an additional €50,000 in cash.
If you are a fast growing European technology startup with a product or service that leverages digital technology applied to industry, cities, wellbeing, infrastructure or finance, with market traction, customers and revenue, growing at a double digit pace or faster and in need of support in international customer acquisition and fundraising, apply until July 31.
Apply now to reach new markets and get access to funding that will help you grow stronger, faster and smarter.