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Season 2022

Check out the Regional Finalists below!

Regional Winners

Diversity Role Model of the Year

Poland

Magdalena Linke-Koszek

I am is a founder of Her impact – a first career platform for women. I am known for my talents to lead, ability to energize people and the community I build. I founded Her impact in 2019 as the culmination of my passions for business, education and networking. In addition to my degree in law from The University in Warsaw, I also studied Art History in Paris. My proudest accomplishment is closing the seed founding all by myself and building a community of over 30k within 1 year. My favorite part of being a business owner is the people. I am a big believer that everyone has a story to tell and loves hearing all of them at Her impact. When I am not at #HERQuarter, you can find me engaging in new projects, writing articles or volunteering.

Ecosystem Hero of the Year

Austria

Petra Wolkenstein

Petra Wolkenstein has been working for seven years with national and international startups and entrepreneurs on go-to-market strategies, cooperation and investor access. She heads Konsultori, the Viennese boutique consultancy, specialising in scaling projects. In 2018 she founded the platform key2investors, which supports startups in their investor search. Her experience comes from 10 years of corporate M&A in the telecommunications industry in Eastern Europe and business development in the TMT sector, from training and consulting projects on negotiation tactics, investor search, cooperation and business development for Austrian and international projects and accelerators.

Startup of the Year

Slovenia

Eligma ltd-ELLY

Eligma Ltd. was founded in 2017 in Slovenia. It is the facilitator of seamless and secure crypto payments at online and offline merchants through its GoCrypto solution the world’s fastest growing crypto payment scheme.

Founder of the Year

Slovenia

Miha Rajh

PharSol stands for Pharmaceutical solutions – our mission is to bring solutions to the biopharmaceutical and bioprocessing industries, by either providing the right equipment or designing custom-made solutions.

Best VC

Hungary

PortfoLion Capital Partners

PortfoLion is a Budapest-based venture capital and private equity firm with a team of 20+ professionals. Managing 400 million euros across our funds allows us to partner up with companies in the broad CEE region across multiple growth stages, including early, growth and buy-out.

Best CoWorking Space

Bulgaria

Puzl CowOrKing

We created Puzl CowOrKing to help IT humans and teams make better products and services. How? By giving them a gorgeous place to work from and a supportive community of like-minded people to share the journey with.

Best Accelerator/Incubator Program

Lithuania

Startup Wise Guys

With 250+ investments in early stage startups, Startup Wise Guys is one of the most active investors in Europe. To help techy startup founders become entrepreneurs, they are running a world class startup accelerator since 2012.

Best Newcomer

Estonia

Adact

Adact is a software that enables brands and agencies to create gamified marketing campaigns without writing any code

People's Choice

Slovenia

Nina Dremelj

Invest, advise, supervise and support start-ups in order to bring interesting and innovative projects to life and lead them to success

 

Regional Finalists

Austria

Bulgaria

Croatia

Czechia

Estonia

Hungary

Latvia

Lithuania

Poland

Romania

Serbia

Slovakia

Slovenia

Albania

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Kosovo

North Macedonia

Montenegro

Categories

Startup of the Year

Description

A startup that inspires the next generation of founders while positively impacting the economy and the world in general. It is a product and/or service which is already a success on the market, disrupting its industry with an innovative approach.

Criteria: The startup must be maximum 5 years of age (calculated from establishment date until public nominations open).

Best Newcomer

Description

A startup with up to 2 years of age with the potential to become Startup of the Year in the future. Its product and/or service is already on the market on a path to disrupt its industry and positively impact the economy and the world.

Criteria: The startup must be maximum 2 years of age (calculated from establishment date until public nominations open).

Founder of the Year

Description

A startup founder or co-founder who has shown strong leadership skills and achieved exceptional business results while being an inspiration to their team and a role model for the next generation of founders.

Criteria:  The individual must be a founder or co-founder of a startup that is a maximum of 5 years of age (calculated from establishment date until public nominations open).

VC of the Year

Description

A VC who has created impressive financial results while investing bravely in innovative companies which can positively impact the economy as well as the world, supporting them also with resources other than just financial.

Criteria: The VC must be established in the country it is participating in.

Best Co-working Space

Description

A co-working space that deserves the recognition for its services, support, and resources to fast-growth startups, and for creating a culture and environment that fosters innovation and focuses on positively impacting the world.

Criteria: The co-working space must be established in the country it is participating in.

Best Accelerator/Incubator Program

Description

A fixed-term, cohort-based, mentorship-driven program that helps and empowers entrepreneurs to foster the growth of their innovative companies by providing tools, resources, connections, knowledge and expertise.

Criteria: The Accelerator/Incubator Program must be established in the country it is participating in.

Ecosystem Hero of the Year

Description

An individual known by its passion for entrepreneurship and ability as well as willingness to help startups and entrepreneurship grow.

Criteria: The individual must perform their activity in the country that they are participating in.

Diversity Role Model of the Year

Presented by

Description

An individual who is known for their outstanding achievements and contribution to the mission of empowering more women and/or members of underrepresented groups to become founders, investors and leaders in their local and/or international startup and innovation ecosystem.

Criteria: The individual must perform his/her activity in the country that they are participating in. Furthermore, the individual must be a professional in the startup ecosystem as a founder, investor or leader in the startup ecosystem, and lead a specific organization and/or an activity to promote and enable more women and/or members of underrepresented groups to become professionals in the startup- and innovation ecosystem.

People's Choice

Description

A company that got the most accumulated votes throughout the regional round.