The Global Startup Awards, the largest independent entrepreneurial ecosystem competition in the world, founded by a Danish – Hungarian group, has just announced its global winners of 2019.
The Global Grand Finale Days has been gathering some of the most important startup ecosystem players – investors, startups, corporates, and government representatives selected by the competition from the 40 participating countries of the Nordics, Central-Eastern Europe, South-East Asia and Southern Africa.
The Awards Ceremony and the invite-only Global Ecosystem Summit, organized by Cathay Group and Sinofaith IP Group, took place in the impressive venue of Meixi Lake Hotel, in the city of Changsha in China, sponsored by The Science and Technology City of Yuelu Mountain National University. The event gathered the regional winners of 2017 and 2018 seasons of the 4 participating regions, together with some specifically selected companies, as well as well as the technology/innovation scene of the hosting city, to discuss market and scaling perspectives between regions and continents, followed by pre-planned matchmaking sessions.
The Global Winners are:
Best Newcomer: EVA – Extended Visual Assistant (Central European Startup Awards, Hungary)
EVA is a voice controlled eyewear for the visually impaired. EVA’s Artificial Intelligence recognises objects, texts, signs and verbally describes what it sees. EVA is a pair of camera equipped talking smart glasses, making Augmented Reality for the ears. They began their journey when one of the founders nearly lost his eyesight in a terrible disease, and have grown their way from idea to pioneers of equal chance for the blind and visually impaired.
Best Coworking Space: Aspace Philippines (ASEAN RiceBowl Startup Awards, the Philippines)
ASPACE is the original pioneering brand for coworking in the Philippines, one of the largest operators across the country, with an award-winning “people first” coworking experience. In fact, the entire mission of ASPACE is to empower us all to Be Human. Perhaps that’s why the Financial Times ranked them in 2018 at #1 of the fastest growing brands in the Philippines, and #53 across Asia Pacific. Their approach is to nurture connections and communities, host thousands of events, as well as manage 000s of square meters of workspace, meeting rooms, event venues (including an art gallery and screening lounge). Their diverse brands include event formats (Startup Grind, Geeks on a Beach, Angelhack…), plus creative hubs for some of the biggest regional startups, niche studios for innovators, neighbourhood cafes, and fringe warehouse locations to house those who make amazing stuff happen. ASPACE is the DNA but each space is unique and true to its neighbourhood, and it’s community of members. After acquiring Palet Express in 2017, ASPACE continues to invent gorgeous spaces to LIVE, WORK, GATHER + GROW. Plus it’s a profitable business, an investor in people (with a ratio cap on executive salaries, shares for employees, unlimited leave + hiring diversity), and a blue ocean adopter that focuses only on where we can go together, never on who can we copy next. That’s why their motto is THRIVETAYO — and even that has been copied 
Best Acceleration / Incubation Program: AIS The Startup (ASEAN RiceBowl Startup Awards, Thailand)
Advanced Info Service PLC. (AIS), the leading telecom and digital business provider in Thailand, is recognized as the first corporate supporting Thai startup ecosystem. In 2011, AIS brought the every-first startup-related event to the nation, called AIS Startup Weekend. Their first initiation, literally, results in digital economy growth in the country today. Moving from event-base, AIS The StartUp is officially announced in 2012 as the first permanent corporate unit in Thailand, responsible to connect startup business with corporate and to design new wave of digital commercialization. Since then, AIS has never stopped in improving ecosystem support. The more ecosystem grows, the more supports are infused. In 2016, the scope of our focus was extended to digital content creator. A year later, AIS Design Center (AIS D.C.), located in the heart of BKK, was open as an inspired community for business, design, and technology. This space community is encompassed with 1) library for free reading, 2) co-working area, 3) AIS Playground for open APIs, 4) startup showcase area, 5) workshop room, 6) photo studio, and 7) meeting rooms. Our portfolios is eligible to enjoy the facility with free of charge. However, to enable the real community, everyone is welcome to use the space with very small charge, only $34 for yearly membership. AR/VR is becoming the new wave of commercialized technology for today and future. Realizing the trend, in 2018, AIS The StartUp, therefore, announced subdivision focusing on AR/VR business in particular. Over +6 yrs, AIS The StartUp engaged with +8,000 players in the ecosystem, locally and internationally. There’re 42 leading startup services listed in our portfolios which all together creates economic impact to the nation +$30M/yr. Furthermore, as a Singtel Group alliance, customer base is expanded +700M subscribers across the world, allowing the portfolio to gain larger customer access to scale the business.
Global #Futureshaper by Cathay – Startups: Cellink (Nordic Startup Awards, Sweden)
Cellink is the first bioink company in the world and their vision is to change the world of medicine. They have developed a technology that allows researchers and scientists to bioprint human organs and tissue that can be used for development of new cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. This means that they can reduce the use of animals in research, save the healthcare system millions of dollars, and make a great impact on the medical industry to revolutionize how we develop medical products.
Founder of the Year: Sok Sopheakmonkol (ASEAN RiceBowl Startup Awards, Cambodia)
Sopheakmonkol is the co-founder and CEO of Codingate and the Cambodian Young Entrepreneur Smart Technology Award 2016 and forbes 30 under 30 asia 2017, ASEAN Best Founder of Year 2017, ASEAN-India Young Leader of Year 2018. He is an inspirational leader in the Cambodia tech community, his company started as a 2013 project where engineers got together to develop technical solutions, not for money but in exchange for laptops. With the success of the initial project, Codingate was established with the mission to continue helping more young students gain employment through his web and mobile development company. He has empowered young talented Cambodians by providing guidance and direction for work teams and is the key business and technical liaison for clients and investors. He possesses a strong foundation in International relations, interpersonal communication, public presentation and speaking skills, team leadership, management, and motivation, as well as providing the technical skills required to effectively manage and grow the Codingate tech venture. So far, they have provided services for 50 clients across sectors including hospitality, education, NGOs. His future business aspiration is that his Codingate team will have the ability position as tech leader and start their own tech ventures by using Codingate’s sustainable business model and receive support and investment for their ventures. Personal Mission: “”Being rooted in truth and knowledge, happiness sets the foundation as the key element of his philosophy. His personal mission is to put good educational principles into practice so that Cambodian youth will find greater levels of happiness and a higher quality of life. His dream is to initiate change toward modernizing the educational system of Cambodia, developing new methods of learning through hands-on experience where youth develops passion and find inspiration in becoming tech leaders.
Global #Futureshaper by Cathay – Ecosystem Players: Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Center – MaGIC (ASEAN RiceBowl Startup Awards, Malaysia)
MaGIC Sarawak Co-Working Space is designed to be a collaborative workspace for the startup community. Located at Borneo 744 in Kuching, Sarawak, it’s more than just a shared office – it’s a community-driven hangout where entrepreneurs could gather to create, share, and discuss ideas with peers, mentors, partners, and allies.
Investor of the Year: Hampus Jakobsson (Nordic Startup Awards, Sweden)
Hampus Jakobsson is a Venture Partner at Blueyard. He co-founded The Astonishing Tribe (acquired by Blackberry in 2010 for $150m). He left Blackberry 2012 to found Brisk.io a sales productivity tool which folded 2016. Angel invested in 70+ companies.
Startup of the Year: Turbine (Central European Startup Awards, Hungary)
Turbine consists of a team of AI developers, medical doctors and bioinformaticians who have spent 10 years researching the technology at Semmelweis University and developing their product concept that has built an artificial intelligence that models how cancer works on the molecular level, and tests millions of potential drugs on it each day. This way, they can speed up cancer research and get new drugs to patients years faster than pharma’s current solutions.
Startups
via https://www.AiUpNow.com
December 16, 2019 at 04:22AM by contact@bcurdy.com, Khareem Sudlow
