StartUp Europe Awards (SEUA) is an open innovation initiative promoted by the European Commission and Finnova Foundation in collaboration with Startup Europe it is supported by the President of the European Parliament, the President of the Committee of the Regions, the Vice-President of the Economic and Social Committee and several members from the European Parliament. StartUp Europe Awards is sponsored by StartUp Europe Accelerator.

SEUA serves as a communication tool for society, encouraging collaboration between the public and business sectors and promoting innovative initiatives. Its aim is to promote the creation of alliances enabling in every region concerned to gather entities and the support programmes for entrepreneurs with local and international partners.

The aim of these events is to reward the 18 most outstanding startups coming from 16 countries across Europe and beyond, announcing one winner for each category in competition: IoT, Cybersecurity, Smart Cities, Fintech, Space, Edtech, eHealth, Legal, Social, Water, Green, Agritech, Climate, Energy, Tourism, Creative, Fashion and Gastronomy.

Wanting to submit your startup to the awards for a chance to win is absolutely plausible. The only thing you need to do is to apply your startup to the national organization that is the representative of your country. For example, if you and your startup are located in Greece then you will want to talk to and submit your startup to the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development. Each country has a partner organization with the Startup Europe Awards so make sure that you will contact them and get more information.

Your startup must fit one of the categories set by the original community. This is where you will submitting your idea. These are the only rules that you need to follow in order for you to submit your startup company. Find the organization and find the category that your startup belong to. After that, all you have to do is wait for your startup to be reviewed and receive the news on whether you are the winner or not. Everyone who has a startup company can compete to the startup Europe Awards so yes there is always a chance for you to win.

There is nothing stopping you from resubmitting your startup the next year or the year after that. So, in case your startup did not do as well as you may have wanted, think about upgrading your idea and build on it and then simply submit it again. We can guarantee that these awards will help you gain a lot of experience on startup companies, will give you a good idea about what works and what does not and will, of course, help you build a professional network that will certainly prove to be very helpful in the future!