The European Commission is really keen to support the EU tech community these days. It’s honoring the top tech entrepreneurs with Europioneers and meanwhile, the second edition of its startup competition Tech All Stars has just kicked off and is looking for entries.
Tech All Stars was launched last year, with automated complaint resolution tool CogniCor emerging as the winner. This year’s competition is now looking for entries, and the finals are an international affair taking in Germany, the UK and Ireland.
The competition is open to graduates of EU-based accelerators and ‘Web camps’ (a term the Commission uses to cover weekend competitions, incubators and the like). The startups need to be registered within the EU, be less than three years old and have raised less than €1 million in external capital. That said, a number of ‘wildcards’ that haven’t been through an accelerator or Web camp will also be selected as long as they meet the other criteria.
From the entries, twelve finalists will be selected to go on to the first part of the competition in Berlin on 7-8 June. There, in collaboration with AngelsBootcamp, they’ll get to meet mentors, investors and entrepreneurs from the lively local scene and receive pitch training. A panel of judges will then narrow the field down to just three startups to move forward.
Those three startups will then proceed to London and the super-exclusive Founders Forum event on 13 June. After that, it’s on to the European Commission’s Digital Agenda event in Dublin on 19-20 June. This is where Europe’s digital future is discussed and debated each year, and, in the final part of the competition, the winner will be decided.
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Want to give it a shot? If your startup meets the entry criteria, you can apply between now and 15 May 2013. Good luck! (Disclosure: I am part of the selection panel that whittles the entries down to the 12 that will compete in Berlin).
See also: Meet the 5 finalists for Europioneers: The European Tech Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
Image credit: Thinkstock
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