Each entrepreneur had just minutes to present and defend their business plan to a panel of venture capitalists, industry executives and government officials. In addition to chasing the €90,000 grand prize, the eco-tech, health and ICT start-ups gained valuable exposure.
The competition fits with the government’s effort to diversify Luxembourg’s economy and create jobs outside of the financial sector, as well as the EU’s 2020 objective to stimulate innovation in Europe.
The contest was organised by Europe Unlimited and PwC, and supported by the Grand Duchy’s ministry of economy and foreign trade, Chamber of Commerce, CRP Henri Tudor and Luxinnovation.
Four of the six winning start-ups at the European Venture Contest were Luxembourg firms. They will move on the last regional qualifying round in Düsseldorf in November and then the top 25 worldwide finalists will compete in Madrid this December. However, the three of the contestents--Creative Heating Services, TaDaWeb and Zentrick--already have taken home a free year at the PwC Accelerator, an incubator for fast growth companies that are expanding internationally.
The semi-finalists are:
Eco-tech: CHS Devulcanisation (Luxembourg)
ICT: MACH-3D (Luxembourg), Regify (Luxembourg), TaDaweb (Luxembourg) and Zentrick (Belgium)
Life sciences: ObeTherapy (France)
IN THE PRINT EDITION: more on support for Luxembourg start-ups can be found in the November issue of Delano, which comes out this Friday.