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The 2016 EIT Digital Challenge finals begin next week with the first two of five events—each tackling a different digital technology category—taking place in five cities across Europe.
Scaleups in each category will compete in front of a panel of expert judges with a chance to join EIT Digital’s European-wide innovation network and enter the organisation’s accelerator program. The accelerator helps scaleup companies with business development, support for internationalization, and fundraising.
The top company from each of the five events will also take home €50,000 in cash.
The top three companies in each category will also be invited to an exclusive EIT Digital Accelerator event in Berlin next month. The two-day “Ignition Days” will provide further workshops with business developers and fundraising experts as well as networking opportunities with potential partners and investors.
Since the first competition held in 2014, more than 1,400 teams from 27 European countries applied for the EIT Digital Challenge. Former winners include Konux (Germany), which has expanded to the US, Undagrid (Netherlands), whose technology tracks equipment on Europe’s largest airports, and Sentryo (France), which raised €2 million at the beginning of 2016.
Final events in Stockholm, Eindhoven, London, Paris and Helsinki
The final events are part of the Innovation Days held by EIT Digital. Here the network showcases its supported scaleups and innovation activities and also brings together digital thought leaders from industry and research that give insights and discuss the latest developments on digital transformation.
With the exception of the Digital Infrastructure finals in Stockholm, where a ticket for the Internetdagarna conference is required, all EIT Digital Challenge finals are free.
Digital Infrastructure – November 21, Stockholm The kick-off event on Digital Infrastructure takes place during the Internet Days (Internetdagarna) conference in Stockholm, organised by The Internet Foundation in Sweden. > Information and registration
Digital Wellbeing – November 24, Eindhoven Next stop will be at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven as part of the national EIT Digital Innovation Day in the Netherlands featuring pitches from the scaleups and panel discussions on health, insurance, and blockchain. > Information and registration
Digital Finance – November 28, London The theme of Digital Finance brings the Digital Challenge to the famous Cheesegrater at the city of London. Finalists will present their scaleups and ideas for reinventing the financial sector alongside speakers from IBM, the Imperial College London, and First Capital among others. > Information and registration
Digital Cities – November 29, Paris The Digital Cities challenge final takes place in Paris at the #CLOUD Business Centre. > Information and registration
Digital Industry – November 30, Helsinki The Digital Industry challenge final comes to Helsinki’s Slush, Finland’s largest tech conference; however, even if you don’t have a Slush ticket, the EIT Digital Challenge event is still open to attend free of charge. > Information and registration
Throughout the five events, the participating companies will be representing 16 different countries and have raised an average of €700,000. Each company takes on different challenges in our cities, industries and personal lives that need a digital solution, like Civocracy’s platform for engaging with city authorities; Shipwallet’s smart shipping services; or FibriCheck’s cardiac monitoring solution.
Check out the full list of 44 companies participating in the events (PDF).
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