Once again, something is happening in the heart of BTC! The ABC Hub, which represents an intersection of innovations, young startup spirit and fast-growing community, will host the event Central European Startup Awards 2016 Grand Finale on Thursday, 1 December, from 18 o’clock onwards. At the event, the brightest startup stars on the regional CEE level will be announced. As shown by the interim results of the international jury’s votes and the regional voice of the people, one of Slovenian representatives is anticipating victory! You’re kindly invited to join us in celebrating this success and toast Slovenian startup entrepreneurs whose breakthrough achievements are thrilling the national, regional and global startup scene!
 

Recognizing, praising and connecting startup ecosystems

Central European Startup Awards (CESA) is a series of events that take place in European countries such as Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary. It is happening with the purpose of recognizing, praising and connecting startup ecosystem of the colourful and varied CEE region. The event also combines all players of this ecosystem – from founders and investors to journalists and many others. Ten countries, twelve categories. Who will be this year’s CEE winners, announced on Thursday’s CESA 2016 Grand Finale?
 

Who are Slovenian representatives?

14 days before the grand finale, 56 Slovenian startups pitched in Technology Park Ljubljana – they were national finalists and 5 members of the jury chose national winners among them, those who will represent us on the regional grand finale on Thursday. On the premises of the ABC Hub, they will contend to win at the level of the CEE region in the following categories: the best coworking space will be represented by the Young Entrepreneur Institute; we will be represented by Slovene Enterprise Fund’s product SK75 in accelerator programmes; Dawn of Play in the category of independent game developers; the early stage category will be represented by the Celje-based Homey; Chipolo will represent us in the IoT startup category; Invoice Exchange in the category of the best fintech startup; Eurosender will be the Slovenian representative in the category of best user experience, Blub Blub will represent us in the category of best social influence, and Jure Mikuž from RSG Capital in the category of investor of the year. Last year’s national winner in the category of the most influential woman of the startup ecosystem was Anuška Beltram. This year, Alja Isaković from the programming group CodeCatz will contend for the flattering title on the regional level. And last but not least: team GoAvio will represent us in the category of startup of the year!
 

Keeping our fingers crossed!

We wish all national representatives a lot of luck and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for their highest places on Thursday’s CESA 2016 Grand Finale! The next step for the winners on the regional level will be placing into the Global Startup Awards competition, which will this year take place on December 9 in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.
 

More than 700 nominations in 12 competitive categories!

CESA and Global Startup Awards are incredibly important on the regional and global scale, and at the same time they are an incredible recognition of a dynamic startup spirit. Numbers are also in favour of this, because this year, more than 700 nominations in 12 competitive categories were contributed by 10 countries for CESA 2016 on the CEE level. The startup world is a fast-growing and changeable ecosystem and also a phenomenon that will be treated as such. In our area, this is a relatively young event that will be organized on a national level for the second time in a row, this year in collaboration with the ABC accelerator and the Initiative Start:up Slovenia. Slovenia is hosting the CESA 2016 Grand Finale in BTC’s ABC Hub for the first time.
 

Who decided about the placement of Slovenian nominees?

Visible representatives of the Slovenian startup ecosystem also recognize the great importance of the event, having decided on the placement of Slovenian nominees this year, while the voice of the people (result of the online votes) was considered as one vote of the jury. The members of this year’s national jury were Jakob Gajšek, cofounder of the ABC Accelerator, Branko Drobnak, president of the Business Angels of Slovenia club, Urban Lapajne, organizational leader of the Initiative Start:up Slovenia, Marjana Majerič, deputy director of Technology Park Ljubljana, and Tanja Kožuh, director of Primorska Technology Park.

The Central Europen Startup Awards Grand Finale is open to everyone that wishes to recognize innovators of Central and Eastern Europe whose effort and dedicated work grabbed the attention of giants, such as Google, IBM and Amazon.

SAP Slovenia also joins these names, having supported two competitive categories in Slovenia this year, namely for the most influential woman of the startup ecosystem, and startup of the year.

More information and registration for the event CESA 2016 Grand Finale at the link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cesa-2016-grand-finale-tickets-28979462352