Who will be Europe’s next tech giant? The question is asked by EIT Digital, a leading European digital innovation and entrepreneurial education organisation. Fast-growing startups are invited to apply for the sixth edition of the EIT Digital Challenge. The best ten companies will receive prizes totaling €750,000 in cash and in kind. The application deadline is 14 June 2019.
The EIT Digital Challenge, the competition for European digital deep tech companies, is now accepting applications. Fast-growing startups – so called scaleups – are invited to apply in one of the following categories: Digital Tech, Digital Cities, Digital Industry, Digital Wellbeing and Digital Finance.
“We will select 25 companies and invite them to an exclusive event in Brussels where they will pitch to a jury of high-profile corporates and investors,” says Dolf Wittkamper, Head of the EIT Digital Accelerator. “10 winners will receive one year of tailored support from the EIT Digital Accelerator, valued at €50,000. In addition, the top winner in each category will receive a cash prize of €50,000.” The EIT Digital Accelerator consists of a team of around 40 experienced business developers and fundraising experts operating from 13 cities across Europe, along with a hub in Silicon Valley. Since 2012, the EIT Digital Accelerator has supported over 300 fast-growing startups to sign up customers and raise capital.
The competition is focusing on ‘deep tech’ scaleups, with a differentiating product offering that leverages sophisticated, hard-to-reproduce digital technologies. “Europe has a strong opportunity to play a central role in digital by focusing on deep tech, which will impact all industry sectors. With the EIT Digital Challenge, we are determined to identify the best ambitious European entrepreneurs and support them in building the future dominant companies in digital technologies”, says Chahab Nastar, Chief Innovation Officer of EIT Digital.
Application criteria
To successfully apply for the EIT Digital Challenge 2019, companies must fulfil the following criteria:
based in a EU member state
be in the growth stage, to be proven by an annual revenue of over €300,000 or min. €2m in total funding)
be in their first ten years of existence.
The deadline for applications is 14 June 2019. For further information and an application form, please visit www.challenge.eitdigital.eu.