Slovak startups and founders can apply for the most prestigious startup competition and win the grand prize. This year’s issue of the Awards comes with a bunch of innovations.
Slovak Startup Awards are taking place for the 7th time in a row, this time being part of a bigger conference. The competition itself has been through various stages over the years. From a one-night event at the historic National Theater building in the beginnings up to 2016 full day event in a venue for more than 1000 people.
Last year’s full-day conference got a lot of attention and positive feedback from the participants. As a result, the organizer of Startup Awards – Neulogy – decided to run the competition on a bigger scale and include the final evening into a new conference concept revolved around the topics of tomorrow’s Central Europe: future of mobility, future of internet, and future of government.
FutureNow conference will take place on December 1st, 2017, in the new building of the National Theatre. Among the guests, you can find such names as Vitaly M. Golomb from HP Tech Ventures, Pavol Rusnak “Stick” from Satoshi labs, or Ondrej Krehel from LIFARS LLC, and many more. To learn more about the conference, visit the official site here.
The call for applications for Startup Awards 2017 is open and will stay open until October 8th. Don’t miss the chance to compete with other strong Slovak teams and win 50K EUR for your project.
Who can apply? Early-stage technology companies with no more than EUR 500K investment, with a product on the market for no more than 2 years based in Slovakia or with at least one Slovak founder. Additionally, applicants should demonstrate potential to scale globally. If you meet the requirements, don’t hesitate and apply here.
Except for the grand prize of 50K EUR, all Startup Awards finalists are invited to participate at the invitation-only Founders Summit for CEE’s top founders and their investors, taking place on December 2nd-3rd right after Startup Awards.
While Startup Awards do not offer a specific investor or investment size as a prize, a lot of finalists and winners get offers from investors who are present at the final. Many of the jury members are well-connected individuals with venture fund links abroad, including Silicon Valley, London, Finland, Berlin, and more.
The companies get a great amount of attention from the local media immediately following the finals and have had coverage in multiple tech media outlets across Europe. Mike Butcher, Editor-at-Large of TechCrunch, wrote about Startup Awards and the finals.
The pre-selection Bootcamp reserved for semi-finalists can be a reason to apply in and of itself. The mentors are seasoned individuals, having run (and in some cases already exited) their own companies, running corporations, invested their own money into technology companies over the years.
In 2017, the organizer and its partners decided to give two special awards, and you can nominate your favorite for both of them here.
Challenger award recognizes a Slovak technology company that has seen an outstanding success in the previous year and has the potential to hit it big next year. The company must be on the market no more than 7 years.
Mission award recognizes a Slovak startup working on innovation tackling a social challenge.
The application round closes on October 8th, 2017, with semi-finalists to be announced on October 11th. Bootcamp for the semi-finalists will take place early November followed by the announcement of the finalists on November 5th. The FutureNow Conference and Startup Awards event will take place on December 1st, 2017.
The bundle tickets for both Future Conference and Startup Awards are now on sale. You can get yours for the early bird price here.
Photos: Startup Awards
