German clean growth firm Breeze Technologies has been named the winner of the Department for International Trade 's (DIT) European Tech Rocketship Awards.
Entries came from every corner of Europe in a bid to identify the brightest and best tech companies and help them on their journey towards internationalisation, offering the opportunity to experience a paid-for, fully-tailored market visit to the UK.
The overall winner in the first European version of the Tech Rocketship Awards, was German clean growth firm Breeze Technologies, while Slovakian battery tech Inobat received Silver Medal and was winner of the public vote in the People's Choice Award.
Breeze technologies is a proptech company that uses AI and IoT to help cities and businesses create better clean air action plans and a more liveable environment by providing hyperlocal air quality and climate data through smart, affordable indoor and outdoor sensors.
The competition attracted almost 650 entries from 30 countries across Europe and Israel and the Grand Finale saw eight Category Winners battle it out in live 'dragons den' style pitches in front of a panel of VIP judges.
The judging panel was headed by the DIT's Minister for Investment, Gerry Grimstone, with Anthony Allcock (Chief Information and Digital Officer of British Airways), and experienced entrepreneurs and dealmakers Priya Guha (Venture Partner, Merrian Ventures), Shalini Khemka (Founder & CEO of E2Exchange), Jude Ower MBE (Founder & CEO of Playmob).
Minister for Investment, Gerry Grimstone, said:
The UK is a world leader in tech and digital, home to high quality and reliable infrastructure, an open business environment, and great innovation, all of which will be invaluable to these award-winners.
Tech has really shown itself to be resilient and stepped up to the plate in the last year, keeping trade, business and investment going through the pandemic and I look forward to seeing how the winners will add to the UK's thriving tech landscape.
Richard Burn, Her Majesty's Trade Commissioner for Europe, said:
The UK is the number one country in Europe for Unicorns. Our tech sector is the home of forward-thinking innovators, and the home of Europe's most ambitious scale-ups. There is no better place for them to grow than the UK.
One of the key roles DIT plays is to help the best companies from around the world thrive on a global level through the tech ecosystem that exists in the UK. What Tech Rocketships will do for the lucky winners is give them a rocket-powered, fully-tailored direct route to the financiers, incubators, tech-savvy customers, and all the infrastructure that they need to help them take that next great leap from scale-up to unicorn status.
The entries were judged by across 17 country and regional finals, before going through to two semi-finals and a grand finale.
The Tech Rocketship Awards Europe targeted established European scale-ups who offer innovative, technology-led solutions across a wide spectrum of industries and are ready to internationalise. The objective of the Tech Rocketship campaign is to facilitate market entry and establishment of UK operations of high potential tech businesses, creating jobs and growth for the UK.
The Overall Winners:
Gold - Breeze Technologies (Germany) - Clean Growth Category Winner
Silver - Inobat (Slovakia) - Future Mobility & Travel Winner
Bronze - R8 Technologies (Estonia) - GREAT Tech for Change
People's Choice Award - Inobat
