And the winner of StartupBus Europe 2016 is…
After 4 days of traveling through Europe while setting up their startup, one team was awarded the best startup by the judging panel. Trustful wants to digitize the ballot system by using NFC and blockchain technology for secure electronic voting. Any card unique to the holder (think a library card or any other identifying card) and using an NFC chip can be used to cast a vote.
Runner-up was Flightship, a startup born on the Swiss bus. Flightship finds the most convenient location to meet up with friends from all over the globe.
Sitting in the judging panel were Elias Bizannes, Founder of StartupBus and StartupHouse, Lars Rasmussen, Co-Founder & Chief Espresso Officer of Weav Music, Kristin Müller, Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds and Carl- Luis Rieger, Investment Analyst at Kompass Ventures. Elias Bizannes said about Trustful “Of all the teams, the thing that was most impressive about Trustful was that they had a vision, a real strong demo and the demo didn’t only reveal product vision but also execution.”
This year’s edition of StartupBus Europe counted 22 teams with participants of 21 different nationalities, basically covering all continents. Divided over four buses and departing from London, Paris, Brussels or Zürich, they gathered in Hasselt for Demo Day at Corda INCubator after the 3-day road trip. There, a shortlist was made up containing, apart from Trustful:
- Audio Beacon (BE)
- Exist (UK)
- Grouped Up (FR)
- Flightship (CH)
- Nightly (UK)
- Pike (BE)
- Sqill (UK)
- Tipple (UK)
- Zing Menu (BE)
Finals took place at Pirate Summit, an invite-only, startup conference in Cologne. During the 2 days spent in Cologne, all 22 teams have the occasion to meet potential investors and pitch for the essential funding to boost their startup.
StartupBus is an intense startup competition and global network of 1,500 buspreneurs. This network is formed during a 3-day entrepreneurial bootcamp during which they are required to setup a full blown startup: from pitching an idea, forming teams, to building an actual product or service in the 72 hours spent on the bus. Each startup will be judged on their product, pitch and traction.
