For the 6th consecutive year, the EIT Digital Alumni Foundation is recognizing the entrepreneurs in our community and supporting their efforts through our Alumni Startup Contest. This initiative, mainly aimed at early stage startups co-founded by our members, offers them the opportunity to gain exposure within the EIT Digital ecosystem and other external parties, such as potential partners and investors.
2021 edition was held fully remote with an opportunity to participants to pitch their startups directly to our panel of external jurors. We received 10 applications with 9 participants taking an opportunity to pitch!
The winners of this contest are recognized as ambassadors of our community and get the opportunity to showcase their business projects in the most recognized tech conferences in Europe, like Slush and TechCrunch Disrupt. In case the winning team misses the opportunity to attend the selected tech conference this year due to covid restrictions or cancellations, they will be able to agree with the Alumni Foundation on alternative rewards to cover company expenses up to €1,500.
The core principles of the contest remained the same: the winner was exclusively chosen based on the assessment of independent experts from the EIT Digital ecosystem and external juries, according to specific criteria defined in advance: 1) WHAT: Overall context & relevance of the proposed solution, 2) HOW: Business model and plan, and 3) WOW: Branding and communication strategy.
After adding up all the scores given by all jury members, we are happy to announce the EIT Digital Alumni Startup of the Year 2021:
Congratulations, Greenele Oy!
According to our juries' opinions, The Greenele Oy team presented a clear problem statement and challenge. They won the votes with their amazing idea and by clearly demonstrating its market potential with already having customers. On top of that, the branding made a good impression on the jury members and the team gave convincing answers to the questions after the pitch.
The Alumni Board wants to thank once again all jury members for their valuable time and feedback. We also thank all the alumni teams who applied this year and hope you continue pursuing your projects with the same enthusiasm and motivation, which are needed in these challenging times more than ever. We hope the contest has provided you an opportunity to refine your business plan and pitch strategy. For this reason, we strongly encourage you to take part in future editions of the contest and keep us informed about any updates!
You can revisit the list of all contest participants here.
We have also published the recording of the event on our youtube channel, so you can go and check it out in case you missed the live event!
EIT Digital Alumni and EIT Digital are supported by the EIT, a body of the European Union