On November 15th, CESA (the Central European Startup Awards) announced the winners in 12 categories on a national level. These winners will meet during an international event – the Grand Finale – which will be held on 1 December in in ABC Hub, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Central European Startup Awards is the biggest no-pitch, no-conference startup festival in CE region. Their aim is to award the best and most promising startups in 10 countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. The competition does not only recognize the best entrepreneurs and the coolest startups, though; the aim of CESA is to bring some spotlight to the whole community, including investors, startup enthusiasts and developers. Central Europe Startup Awards is part of the Global Startup Awards. Its first edition was held in 2014, and it attracted over 1000 nominations.
Twelve categories of awards are:
Startup Of The Year by SAP: Startup with the biggest development over the last year.
Investor of the Year: A company or individual who made the best investment decisions – it can be an exit or early investment of a notable startup.
Best FinTech Startup: Success of the financial technology startups is measured in the form of growth, impact, sales, product and service.
Best IoT Startup by GE: This category is self-explanatory – these are the startups concerning hardware, IT, data and society.
Most Influential Woman by SAP: The most inspirational and influential woman of the startup ecosystem.
Best Coworking Space: The most supporting place for startups and entrepreneurs in terms of infrastructure, community and programs.
Best Early Stage Startup: Startup that’s been on the stage for maximum two years, showing a promising track based on growth, impact, sales, product and/or services.
Best Acceleration/Incubation Program by Infobip: Program that helped in development and growth of startups with best financial results and impact.
Best Social Impact Startup by CEU BSch: Social startup that created the biggest impact or growth.
Best Indie Game Developer by MITO: Startup which created the most innovative or engaging gameplay experience.
Best AI/Chatbot Solution: The best application of Artificial Intelligence to propose solutions for problems that were considered unsolvable.
Best User Experience: A product or a service demonstrating amazing user experience.
Full list can of national winners can be found here.
