The European Commission is doing its best to embed itself further in the European startup and investor ecosystem, and gearing up to make its second Digital Agenda Assembly a success (we’ll be there, by the way).
In partnership with pan-European investor group Rainmaking, the EC is also organizing a startup competition dubbed Tech All Stars, which aims to identify 12 promising European startups and get them in front of EU funding sources, a number of successful entrepreneurs and pundits, as well as potential investors.
Tech All Stars will select 10 of the best Euro startups that ‘graduated’ from business incubators, accelerators and Web camps, and another two ‘wildcards’ (that would be startups that haven’t necessarily completed an accelerator program or similar).
Startups can apply now and need to fit three criteria: they have to be registered within the European Union (duh), be less than 3 years old and raised raised less than 1 million euros in outside capital.
The application process will close on May 15th, and the twelve startups will be selected in early June 2012.
On the Tech All Stars advisory board, you’ll find people like PriceMinister CEO Pierre Kosciusko Morizet, Seedcamp’s Reshma Sohoni, Startup Bootcamp MD Alex Farcet, Springboard’s Jon Bradford and Wayra Europe’s Simon Devonshire.
The organization is trying to convince sponsors to offer winning startups cash prizes, but in any case, the top three startups will win an exclusive invite to Founders Forum to pitch at its high-profile talent track (past Founders Forum participants include Mark Zuckerberg and Richard Branson).
Tech All Stars is organized by the European Commission’s Information Society and Media department and will be held in June 20th – 21st 2012 in London. The winner will participate in an event on June 22nd in Brussels and receive an award from EC Vice President Neelie Kroes.
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