Meltwater Wins Schroders ‘Next Gem’ Award; Cleantech Award Won by Novaled.
Geneva, Switzerland – 19th November, 2009 – The fourth Audemars Piguet “Changing Times” European Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award has been won by Klaas Kersting, CEO of Gameforge, the largest independent global provider of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). In addition, Meltwater has been awarded the Schroders Next Gem prize and the Cleantech award went to Novaled. The Awards are organised by Audemars Piguet in partnership with Schroder & Co Banque and European Tech Tour. Further details on the winning companies are below.
Anil Hansjee, Head of Corporate Development, Google EMEA and member of the selection committee, said, "The 'Changing Times' European Technology Awards have consistently highlighted the strength and depth of European innovation - identifying both established leaders as well as the next generation winners who have gone on to make a major mark on the European technology scene. This year is likely to prove no exception and the selection committee has high hopes for Meltwater and Gameforge. They represent sectors where Europe has long had innovation leadership, namely business intelligence and digital entertainment, but with exciting new business models attached. I wish them both great fortune."
George Coelho, Managing Director of Good Energies in the UK and member of the selection committee, was very impressed by the standard of entries and by Novaled, the Cleantech winner, “European entrepreneurism in Cleantech is especially strong. Serial entrepreneurs are increasingly moving away from IT and into Cleantech and we have the right infrastructure here to encourage that - environmental legislation in Europe is supportive and so is the VC community as well as the traditionally strong technical base. The recession has not hit Cleantech investment in the slightest, there's even competition between VCs for the good deals.”
Gameforge (winner of the main Audemars Piguet “Changing Times” Award, created to honour the company that has made the greatest impact on the greatest number of people in a minimum of time) was a pioneer in MMOGs in 2003, creating a new variety of games industry and attracting millions of players in a very short time. More than 85 million users have signed up for Gameforge games and 300,000 new users sign up every day.
Meltwater Group (winner of the Schroders Next Gem Award, designed for the company with the most promising future) provides Software as a Service solutions to over 19,000 clients worldwide, using innovative technologies to challenge existing business models. Solutions are currently based on search engine technology, cloud computing and biometrics. The company has grown organically and has been profitable from its foundation in 2001..
Novaled (winner of the Cleantech award) is a world leading company in the Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) field. The company, founded in 2003, has attained the world record in power efficiency and has more than 400 patents granted or pending. It markets its technology and proprietary materials to display and lighting manufacturers and has developed long term partnerships with major OLED players worldwide.
Companies submitting entries for the Awards had to be able to demonstrate an annual growth rate of at least 50% for the past three years, be founded no more than 10 years’ ago and have revenue originating from several countries. European origin management is preferred and ideally the company should still be run by the founders. Further details here.
The selection committee was composed of representatives from Google, Good Energies, the European Tech Tour Association (ETT), Wellington Partners, Sofinnova, Go4Venture, Partech, Accel Partners, Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and Northzone Ventures.
The Audemars Piguet awards have grown in popularity every year since the launch in 2006 and this year there were over 180 entrants. Past winners have been consistently successful after achieving their prizes. For example, the 2006 winner, MySQL, was sold for $1 billion to Sun Microsystems soon after winning the award. QlikTech, the winner of the Audemars Piguet Changing Times Award in 2008 has had revenue growth of 80% over the last three years. They have over 425,000 users at 9760 customers in 90 countries; are projecting to take $500 million by the end of 2011 and they have an ecosystem that is generating another $500 million in revenue. The MedTech winner in 2008, CoreValve, is one of the fastest growing medtech companies in Europe with more than 1000 patients treated with a 100% success rate. They were acquired by Medtronic in 2009 for $700 million.
Founded in 1875 by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet in the Swiss village of Le Brassus, Audemars Piguet is the oldest fine watchmaking manufacturer never to have left the hands of the founding families. At the heart of the Vallée de Joux, its master-watchmakers dedicate their unique expertise and know-how to creating a range of exclusive products composed of high-precision watches and jewellery watches, designed and crafted with legendary care. Throughout its history, Audemars Piguet has adopted avant-garde technologies which have enabled it to develop an unparalleled number of world firsts in the field of Haute Horlogerie.
www.audemarspiguet.com
Schroders is a global asset management company established in 1804 with EUR 133 billion assets under management. The company still bears the stamp of the founding Schroder family and focuses exclusively on asset management and private banking. The independence of its advisory and financial services is reflected in the bank’s structure: Schroders has a very solid financial base. Schroders has had a local presence in Switzerland since 1967 and the offices in Zurich and Geneva (since 1984) service a national and international private and institutional clientele. In Switzerland, Schroder & Co Banque SA provides a wide range of asset management and credit services.
www.schroders.ch
European Tech Tour (ETT) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation which recognises that continued prosperity in Europe lies in its ability to transform today’s innovative projects into tomorrow’s global technology leaders. Its goal is to promote European entrepreneurship and provide a platform for entrepreneurs and investors to meet, ideally leading to funding or facilitation of high technology companies looking to expand internationally. ETT organizes two country specific tours per year to identify the best emerging companies in a geographical region, as well as two vertical industry events to capture the most innovative European companies in a specific industry segment, such as Semiconductor, Cleantech, Medtech and Web & Mobility.
www.techtour.com
Source: Audemars Piguet |
