For the 5th 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.
In our 2020 edition, we had to tweak a bit the contest timeline and rules to account for the circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic. Following the trend of going fully remote, we included for the first time ever the oportunity for all contestants to pitch their startups directly to our panel of external jurors. We received a whopping 22 applications, almost exceeding the combined total number of participants in all previous editions altogether!
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.
Despite the changes introduced this year, 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 Academy and EIT Digital Accelerator, 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 2020:
Congratulations, Ellure (ellure.se)!
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.
EIT Digital Alumni and EIT Digital are supported by the EIT, a body of the European Union