‘Social fingerprint’ firm Trustev wins the EU Commission’s Tech All Stars startup competition

Europe has its fair share of hub cities for Internet tech, but it wasn’t a startup from London, Berlin, Stockholm or Dublin that won the European Commission’s Tech All Stars competition yesterday. Instead it was Trustev, based in Cork on the south coast of Ireland that took the prize.

Now in its second year, Tech All Stars was launched as part of a wider drive for the European Union to officially recognize the work of Internet tech entrepreneurs. The competition saw 300 entrants whittled down to 12 who took part in a pitching competition in Berlin earlier this month. Three finalists; Trustev, EcoChain and Snap Fashion, then went on to the Founders Forum event near London yesterday, where a panel of judges selected the winner.

We covered Trustev in February this year when it raised $300,000 in funding for its ‘social fingerprint’ service that uses online account information to help online retailers determine whether potential customers are trustworthy.

All three finalists were awarded €10,000 ($13,335) worth of Amazon Web Services and access to the exclusive Founders Forum event to mingle with A-grade entrepreneurs from around the world. Trustev will now go on to present at the European Commission’s Digital Agenda Assembly in Dublin next week, where decision makers and members of the tech community from across the EU will gather to discuss Europe’s digital future.

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Tech All Stars is part of a wider drive by the European Commission to support Internet entrepreneurship in the EU. Other initiatives include the recent Europioneers ceremony, a European ‘Leaders Club‘ and the forthcoming Eurapp workshop. By way of disclosure, I was a member of the panel that selected the final 12 startups for Tech All Stars but had no say in the selection of the final winner.

Image credit: AFP/Getty Images