Nine Dutch Scale Ups in Race for EIT Digital Challenge 2018

18 Jul 2018
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Author: HSD Foundation

Nine Dutch fast growing startups compete against 200 European organisations from 24 countries in Europe largest scale up competition.

The best 25 scale ups will pitch in October this year in Brussel their scale up to an international expert jury who will designate five winners in total from five different categories Digital Infrastructure, Industry, Wellbeing, Cities and Digital Finance.

 

Germany has the most entries (36) for the EIT Digital Challenge, followed by England (18), Austria (16), France (15) and Spain (14). The Netherlands is in view of the number of entries at seventh place and leaves behind the countries Sweden (6) and Finland (4).

The Dutch scale ups are mostly represented in the category Digital Finance and Digital Industry with each three entries, de categories Cities, Wellbeing and Infrastructure have each one Dutch participant. In total the majority deep tech scale ups have entered for the category Digital Industry (72), Digital Infrastructure (43) and Digital Wellbeing (33). Digital Cities (28) and Digital Finance (24) follow. "Deep tech is definitely impacting Europe's digital transformation, and it is no surprise that Digital Industry has been a popular category with the highest number of applications. Digital Infrastructure, the core digital category that includes AI, cybersecurity and networking, has also received a lot of applications", explains Chahab Nastar, Chief Research & Innovation Officer at EIT Digital. "Digital Cities and Digital Wellbeing are well balanced, while Digital Finance, our newest area, is nicely ramping up", he adds.

 

In each category, the best two companies will receive a full year of dedicated growth support from the EIT Digital Accelerator, worth €50,000. Additionally, the winner in each category will also receive a cash prize of €50,000. "With ten companies joining the Accelerator programme and cash prizes of €250,000, the EIT Digital Challenge 2018 offers the most comprehensive prize package ever," states Dominik Krabbe, EIT Digital Challenge Lead. "We've seen an increased interest from high quality scale ups and are impressed by what they have already achieved."

 

EIT Digital Press release