The much-anticipated Europas Awards are making a grand return, promising a dazzling celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship in the vibrant city of Lisbon on November 13th, 2023. Set to coincide with the renowned Web Summit, this event is a beacon of excellence, recognizing and honoring the crème de la crème of tech startups across the continent.

A galaxy of innovation and entrepreneurship

Get ready to witness a stellar assembly of pioneering minds, as the Europas Awards—Europe’s most distinguished tech startup awards—unveil a universe of opportunity and recognition for the groundbreaking startups shaping our future. It’s not just about being a startup; it’s about standing out as a supernova in the expansive galaxy of innovation and entrepreneurship!

Past winners and success stories from The Europas Awards

Take a look at the trajectories of some of our past laureates:

• BUILDER.AI (2022 Scaleup of the Year Winner): Post-victory, BUILDER.AI has ascended to remarkable heights, securing a colossal $450 million in additional funding from esteemed entities such as Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority.

• MICROHARVEST (2022 AG/Food Tech Category Winner): A trailblazer in sustainable protein production through microorganisms, MicroHarvest is on a mission to build the resilient food system of tomorrow, earning widespread acclaim and enhancing the visibility of their pioneering value proposition.

• DELIVEROO (2015 Best E-commerce Startup Winner): With a footprint in over 10 countries worldwide, Deliveroo has emerged as a formidable competitor in the realm of food delivery, going toe-to-toe with giants like Uber Eats and Just Eat.

Mark your calendars

Join us in the celebration of brilliance and determination, as we showcase the best and brightest startups from across Europe. Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur, an investor, or a tech enthusiast, the Europas Awards are a golden opportunity to network, learn, and get inspired.

Event details

• Date: November 13th, 2023
• Location: Lisbon, Portugal
• Co-located with: Web Summit

For additional information, registration details, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit the Europas Awards official website.

The A.M. Turing Award, bestowed by the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), honours computer scientists and engineers who have contributed towards the progress of the information technology industry.

Often considered to be the the ‘Nobel Prize for Computing,’ the 2014 Turing Award has recognised the efforts of Dr. Michael Stonebraker, towards the concepts and practices underlying modern database systems. ACM will present him with the 2014 A.M. Turing Award at its annual Awards Banquet on June 20 in San Francisco, California.

“Michael Stonebraker’s work is an integral part of how business gets done today,” explains ACM President Alexander L. Wolf. “Moreover, through practical application of his innovative database management technologies and numerous business start-ups, he has continually demonstrated the role of the research university in driving economic development.”

The 71 year old is credited with the invention of numerous concepts that have been crucial in making databases a reality and that are used in almost all modern database systems, explains the announcement. With Ingres he introduced the notion of query modification, used for integrity constraints and views while Postgres introduced the object-relational model, effectively merging databases with abstract data types while keeping the database separate from the programming language.

Dr. Stonebraker later released these systems as open software, enabling widespread adoption and their code bases have been incorporated into many modern database systems.

Currently, Dr. Stonebraker is adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) where he is also co-founder and co-director of the Intel Science and Technology Center for Big Data.

Previously, he served as professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley for 29 years, and is a graduate of Princeton University earning his master’s degree and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Prior to the Turing Award, Dr. Stonebraker has been the recipient of various awards including the Software System award with Gerald Held and Eugene Wong for the development of INGRES for his involvement as the main architect of the INGRES relational DBMS (IBM’s System R was also recognized).

He was also responsible for founding several successful companies to commercialize his work, including Ingres Corporation (acquired by ASK and then Computer Associates), Illustra Corporation (acquired by Informix), Cohera Corporation (acquired by PeopleSoft), Streambase, Inc (acquired by Tibco), Vertica Systems, Inc. (acquired by HP), VoltDB, Paradigm4 and Tamr, Inc.

Started in 1966 and named after Alan Turing, the British mathematician touted as the father of modern computing, who led the efforts to crack the German Enigma machine during World War 2, the ACM Turing Award presents a $1 million prize to the winner, financial support for which is provided by Google, Inc.

Photo credit: Tamr

While the winner for alternative finance debt funder of the year went to British Business Bank, ‘Nutmeg’ was declared the Fintech start-up of the year..

Yoyo took home the ‘mobile commerce and banking’ award for their payment platform. Upon each mobile payment at a participating retailer, Yoyo customers collect points within the app. The spending and behavioural data collected will then allow the retailer to target chosen customer segments with promotions. By going beyond payments, Yoyo has found a clever way of enriching both the customer experience and that of participating retailers.

Barclaycard, with their bPay wristband, won in the category for ‘contactless payment initiative’. This initiative is set apart from others by the fact that users do not have to be Barclaycard customers. The pre-paid account linked to the wristband can be topped up using any UK bank account and almost any credit card.

Rhydian Lewis, founder and CEO of RateSetter, was named “FinTech leader of the year”. RateSetter, currently the largest P2P lender in the UK, is a true disruptor. Known for having introduced the ‘Provision Fund’ concept, none of their 20,924 lenders have lost a penny to date.

The winner of “FinTech deal of the year” also relating to alternative lending was the arrangement between the P2P lending platform Funding Circle and RBS and Santander. The somewhat unconventional agreement sees the two banks proactively referring small business customers to the P2P lender.

The Fintech innovation of the year went to ‘Bought by Many’ and the emerging markets award went to MobiFin. Companies were also awarded under several other categories like Anti Fraud/ Security initiative, Data Solutions, asset management system and others.

OTTO Wins BT Retail Week Technology Award with Blue Yonder

June 13^th, 2014 – OTTO, the largest online retailer for end-consumer fashion and lifestyle in Germany, and  Blue Yonder, a leading provider of Predictive Analytics, are/were named winner of the Best Customer Insight Project category at the  BT Retail Week Technology Awards in the UK.

The project, titled ‘Closed Loop – system-based decisions throughout the product lifecycle with Predictive

Analytics and Big Data’, focused on the need for sales forecasts to evolve beyond traditional ‘static’ processes.

“We are thrilled to be the recipient of such a prestigious award in the retail industry especially considering the notable competition that we stood up to,” said Michael Sinn, Director of Supply and Category Management Support, OTTO. “As an early adopter of using Big Data techniques in the retail environment our business has made great progress as a result. We look forward to continuing our award-winning and trendsetting relationship with the team at Blue Yonder.”

With Blue Yonder’s Predictive Analytics technology, OTTO is paving the way when it comes to using Big

Data to improve customer insights in the retail sector. The collaboration not only highlights the importance of accurate forecasting but also underlines the value of converting data into meaningful predictions about future trends that will meet current customer demand. A classical win-win-situation since this increases the business performance as well as the customer satisfaction.

“This is a major achievement for Blue Yonder to be recognised amongst so many of our industry peers,” added Rakesh Harji, UK Managing Director, Blue Yonder. “Accurate forecasting that gives retailers the power to predict future customer needs and purchasing habits is becoming critical in a multichannel world. For our Predictive Analytics technology to be selected as leader in this field is a huge accomplishment for all involved in the OTTO Closed Loop project.”

The awards were celebrated at the Hilton Hotel, Park Lane, London on 11 June 2014. Run by Retail Week and judged by retailers, the BT Retail Week Technology Awards are designed to showcase the way in which cutting edge technology is shaping retail, improving the customer experience and driving profits.

The shortlisted retailers, chosen from an impressive number of high-standard entries, were reviewed by an esteemed jury, made up of influential figures and experts from retail. These included:

• Graham Benson, CIO, M&M Direct

• John Bovill, IT and E-commerce Director, Monsoon/Accessorize

• Peter Fredrico, CIO, The Travel Corporation

• Andy Harding, Executive Director, House of Fraser

• Ruth Spencer, Director of Digital and Loyalty, Boots

• Paul Coby, IT Director, John Lewis

• Mike McNamara, CIO, Tesco

Chris Brook-Carter, editor-in-chief, Retail Week, commented: “Innovation is the life-blood of the British retail industry, driven by the huge advances in technology we are seeing. A constant drive by retailers to use technology to improve the customer experience, increase convenience and solve problems is critical to maintaining UK retail’s success as a world-leader, and in continuing to create jobs and contribute billions to the economy every year. On behalf of Retail Week, I’d like to congratulate all our deserving winners on their outstanding achievements and for helping to shape the future of the great British retail industry.”

A full list of BT Retail Week Technology Award winners can be found  here.

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About OTTO

The single company OTTO has its headquarters in Hamburg and employs around 4,350 people at its Hamburg location. Sales in the 2013/14 financial year amounted to 2.27 billion euros. OTTO now generates over 80 per cent of total sales through otto.de and additional specialist online shops. Part of the Otto Group, OTTO is the largest online retailer for end-consumer fashion and lifestyle in Germany, and the second-largest B2C online retailer altogether.

Werner Otto founded the OTTO company in 1949 and it is still under family ownership today. Dr Michael Otto, son of the company founder and for many years Chairman of the Executive Board, has developed the Otto-Versand mail order company at the time into the internationally active retail and service group, Otto Group, with 123 companies in 20 countries. Today the single company OTTO is managed by the three Management Board Members: Dr Michael Heller (OTTO Management Board, Categories), Marc Opelt (OTTO Management Board, Marketing & Sales) and Petra Scharner-Wolff (OTTO Management Board, Services).

About Blue Yonder ( www.blue-yonder.com)

Blue Yonder is the leading SaaS provider for Predictive Applications in the European market. The company’s platform automates mass decisions in real time, resulting in accurate forecasts. Founded in 2008 and based in Karlsruhe, Germany, Blue Yonder provides industry-specific forecasting software that enables customers like Otto, EON and Next to optimize the key business processes and to become “predictive enterprises.” Founded by the former CERN researcher Prof. Michael Feindt, Blue Yonder has the largest team of world-class Data Scientists in Europe. Using scientifically-based and innovative technologies such as predictive modeling and machine-learning approaches, Blue Yonder helps companies to increase their profit. With its scalable and cloud-based platform, Blue Yonder delivers precise predictions for demand planning and replenishment. It is also being used for dynamic pricing and customer analytics. In January 2014, Blue Yonder launched the Data Science Academy to provide relevant expertise to businesses and to train management as well as business users and IT. Blue Yonder’s work has been recognized by many industry awards such as the 2013 FOCUS Digital Star Award and most recently, the Deutscher Innovationspreis 2014 and Retail Week Technology Awards 2014.

About Retail Week

Retail Week provides breaking news and accurate insight into the retail sectors and disciplines that matter, helping the UK retail industry make the right investment and business decisions. Subscribers access essential data, news and clear analysis through multiple channels including the weekly magazine, in-depth specialist reports and content from industry leading contributors; via an interactive retail database; and through unrivalled access, networking and celebration at Retail Week’s essential face-to-face business events and Awards. With 47 of the top 50 UK retailers as customers, Retail Week is at the centre of UK retail and both reflects and champions the industry. Its invaluable content guides businesses through the myriad of challenges in today’s retail environment. Retail Week, the UK’s number one retail brand, is powered by EMAP.  www.retailweek.com