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Season 2017

OVERVIEW

2017 was a real turning point for both CESAwards and the startup ecosystem in the region.
We have seen a booming number of ventures growing up to be scaleups, a number of new accelerators opened and we have been getting more and more recognition for innovations coming up in the field of biotech, AI and IoT.
We looked for the best of the best in the ecosystem in 2017 in 10 countries, received 1700+ unique nominations and worked together with a mere 200 partners to highlight and celebrate our local #futureshapers.
The Grand Finale was held in Sofia, Bulgaria with the cooperation of ABLE (Association of the Bulgarian Leaders and Entrepreneurs) where 400+ attendees from across the region and beyond met and celebrated the colorful and diverse innovation landscape of Central and Eastern Europe.

CESA Winners 2017

Turbine.AI

Hungary

Startup of the Year

Description

Turbine takes trial and error experiment out of the laboratories, and moves it onto their servers that can run millions of experiments in a matter of minutes. Their services help deliver effective treatments to cancer patients faster by combining the most accurate model of human cells with tumor-specific data.

ABC Accelerator

Slovenia

Best Acceleration and Incubator Programmec

Description

At ABC Accelerator, startups get lectures on various topics from pitching to business development and sales four days per week. ABC is strategically connected to large, multinational enterprises like IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle and BMW and supported by Harvard and Berkeley Universities.

LAUNCHub Ventures

Bulgariac

Investor of the Year

Description

Founded in 2012, the first LAUNCHub fund of €9M, was actively investing until the end of 2015 and has been deployed in pre-seed tickets up to €200K. The former fund backed 62 startups which have attracted more than €20M in follow-up funding. They are currently investing with a ticket that normally ranges between €300K and €700K but they are ready to invest up to €1.5 million in the right startup.

Puzl CowOrKing

Bulgaria

Best Coworking Space

Description

Puzl CowOrKing areas are designed around the IT community needs – a hybrid between coworking, event and chill spaces. Topped with the social buzz of a neighborhood and designed with the digital folk in mind. They opened their doors in 2015. Since then 400+ people joined to their community. They have been expanding since and have plans to open several new offices across the CEE region.

Turbine.AI

Hungary

Best AI Startup

Description

Turbine takes trial and error experiment out of the laboratories, and moves it onto their servers that can run millions of experiments in a matter of minutes. Their services help deliver effective treatments to cancer patients faster by combining the most accurate model of human cells with tumor-specific data.

SoWat

Romania

Best Social Impact Startup

Description

SoWat is a portable water purification system that turns any source of fresh water into clean drinking water, using a mechanical process with no chemicals. One SoWat system can produce enough daily water for 5,000 people, at a monthly cost of just €0.05 per person.

Bitpanda

Austria

Best FinTech Startup

Description

They make it easy for everyone to instantly access the world of digital currencies and assets with the highest security standards in the industry by connecting the new digital financial world with the old economy.

Turbine.AI

Hungary

Best Biotech Startup

Description

Turbine takes trial and error experiment out of the laboratories, and moves it onto their servers that can run millions of experiments in a matter of minutes. Their services help deliver effective treatments to cancer patients faster by combining the most accurate model of human cells with tumor-specific data.

Bee Smart Technologies

Bulgaria

Best IoT Startup

Description

Bee Smart is a remote diagnostic and monitoring station for any bee hive. The software is based on proprietary bio-based AI algorithms that translates the collected data into actionable statistics and notifications on an intuitive dashboard.

Symvaro

Austria

Best Smart City Solution

Description

Symvaro’s flagship project WATERLOO is a powerful tool which assists and helps water providers to organize water meter exchanges and meter readings in several paperless ways, that way mater management cost could be reduced up to 80%.

Sara Koslinska

Poland

Founder of the Year

Description

Sara Koslinska is a CEO of Limitless (http://www.limitlessapp.io), a FinTech startup providing a micro investment app to financial institutions willing to engage Millennials. Previously she gained international experience, worked for startups and running her own B2B ventures.

EVA Vision

Hungary

Best Newcomer Startup

Description

Eva Vision provides self-navigation for blind and visually impaired people. EVA is a voice controlled eyewear for the visually impaired. EVA’s Artificial Intelligence recognises objects, texts, signs and verbally describes what it sees.

Billon

Poland

People’s Choice

Description

Billon can securely convert traditional cash into digital money. Digitized funds can be transferred P2P or B2B without any third parties charging fees. Transferred money can be kept as digital money or converted back to paper cash.

Country Partners

HUKI

Croatia

The Heart

Poland

Impact Hub Cluj-Napoca

Romania

Confidence Digital

Czech Republic

Hajni Bessenyei & Luminita Anton

Hungary

Kristína Fischerová

Slovakia

Grand Finale Partner

Let’s see our Grand Finale Day 2017 in Sofia! Grand Finale Day 2017

Regional Jury Board

Andrew Chanin

United States

CEO at PureFunds

Adam Cheyer

United States

Co-Founder of Siri & Viv Labs

Alex Farcet

Denmark

Co-founder of Startupbootcamp and Rainmaking Innovation

Jeff Burton

United States

Founding Partner of Electronic Arts

Peter Stracar

Czech Republic

President & CEO at General Electric Central & Eastern Europe

Manuel Koelman

Germany

Co-Founder at PIRATE.global

Tanya Soman

United States

Venture Partner at 500 Startups

Jürgen Kopelke

Germany

CEO & Co-Founder of Webumbrella

George A. Tilesch

United States

US Managing Partner at Innomine Group

Chris McCann

United States

Head of community at Greylock Partners

David Vitezy

Hungary

Director of the National Transport Museum of Hungary

Tanja Kufner

Germany

Managing Director at Startupbootcamp Berlin

Cristobal Alonso

Spain

Global CEO at Startup Wise Guys

Matthew C Eshed

United States

Co Founder & Director of Operations and Wellness at Impossible Labs

Gyula Feher

Hungary

CTO and Founder at Ustream, an IBM Company

Bernard Moon

United States

Co-founder & Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures

George Northcott

United Kingdom

Co-Founder & Head of Business Development at Founders Factory

Peter Szabadhegy

Hungary

Hungary's former ambassador to London

Adrian Pica

Romania

Co-Founder of 150sec.com

Mark Cameron White

United States

Founding Partner at White Summers Caffee & James LLP

Zoltan Kalmar

Hungary

Serial Entrepreneur, Commercial Real Estate Expert

Mateusz Nowak

Poland

Partner at Mazovia Capital

Ramesh Haridas

United States

Angel Investor

Matteo Penzo

Italy

Executive Technology Director at frog

Alexander Jarvis

Ireland

Founder of 50Folds

Kinga Stanislawska

Poland

Managing Partner and Founder of Experior Venture Fund

Daniel Saaristo

Germany

Deep Learning Startups Business Manager at NVIDIA

Georg Kuttner

Austria

Managing Partner Sales and Partnerships at Startup Live GmbH

Chris Houghtaling

Austria

Founder of VisioneersPartner

Kevin Koym

United States

Founder & CEO Tech Ranch

Sandras Phiri

South Africa

CEO Africa Trust Academy

Hussein Kanji

United Kingdom

Non Executive Director at Yieldify

Exclusive Partners

Check out : Total Partners list

National Winners 2017

Want to revisit National Winners 2017? Check out : National Finalist and Winners 2017

Contact Us

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