Forty tech startups compete for LEVEL UP Awards
The LEVEL UP Awards jury selects forty promising start-ups. The finals are on September 30, but voting for the audience award is already possible.
Published on September 19, 2024
Bart is the co-founder and co-owner of Media52 (publishing IO+) and a Professor of Journalism at the University of Groningen. He is responsible for all the branches of our company—IO+, events, and Laio—and focuses on commercial opportunities. A journalist at heart, he also keeps writing as many stories as he can.
After a pre-selection by experts and submissions by the public, the jury of the LEVEL UP Awards has selected the 40 most promising tech start-ups. The finals are on September 30, but voting for the audience award is already possible as of now.
Vote for the startup of your choice here.
During the LEVEL UP event on September 30, the jury will select the three finalists, who will then pitch their solutions in front of hundreds of interested people. Whoever does so most convincingly will win the prize, which includes a trip to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and a trip to Silicon Valley. Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Braventure, and The Gate organize LEVEL UP.
Co-organizer Jeroen van Woerden, director of The Gate, is proud of the 40 nominees. “The diversity is great, and what unites them all is their focus on solving today's big challenges. Whoever is going to win, I'm sure we will hear a lot from many of these contestants.”
A helping hand
LEVEL UP arose from the realization that startups deserve a leg up. Job Nijs, director of Braventure: “The growth of startups to scale-ups is crucial for economic growth and employment and, therefore, the future earning capacity of the Netherlands. Research by Deloitte and the leadership program THNK shows that only 1 in 200 startups reach the scale-up phase. This emphasizes how challenging it is to successfully grow a startup.”
An event like LEVEL UP hopes to contribute to that. But money is also always essential, emphasizes Brigit van Dijk-van de Reijt, CEO of Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM). “Startups need the right support. The availability of sufficient funds is indispensable for this. Public and private, this requires a contribution of billions of euros.”
Jury
The three best startups pitch their companies on the main stage of LEVEL UP, in a room with investors, fellow entrepreneurs and other interested parties. Already a prize in itself. The prestigious professional jury - consisting of Jeroen van Glabbeek (CM.com), Simone Brummelhuis (Borski Fund), and Kathleen Philips (imec) - will then choose the winner, who will walk away with an impressive prize. In fact, the winning startup will join the 4TU delegation with two people for an exclusive trip to CES Las Vegas - the global stage for innovation, Palo Alto and San Francisco. The audience award winner will receive a Startup IP Voucher from LIOC. The runners-up are not forgotten either. Like the winners of both awards, they will receive a booth at CES Unveiled, the Dutch pre-event of CES Las Vegas, just like the winner of the audience award.
AI startups
As might be expected, AI startups make up the majority of the market. Nevertheless, the diversity is great. Although some startups fit into different categories, this is roughly the distribution: