From VC Fund of the Year to Male and Female Entrepreneurs of the Year, Investor Allstars is back for its 12th outing on 24 September for what is described as the Oscars for the European venture capital community.
Held in partnership between GrowthBusiness and GP Bullhound, the awards will look back on a period which has seen unheralded growth in deal numbers, multi-million pound exits and impressive business expansion.
The day will also see the second outing of Europe’s Allstar company, when five leading lights will take to the stage and then be judged by a room full of their peers and investors. This year we’ll hear from the founding teams of Achica, BlaBlaCar, Farfetch, NewVoiceMedia and ZoundIndustries. Bloomberg will be hosting the morning event, broadcasting the presentations to its audience.
To shake up the event this year we’ve introduced two new award categories, Corporate Development Team of the Year and the Sferiq Award for Digital Innovation in Art. The latter will recognise a company or individual in the art industry who has used digital technology or the internet to disrupt and innovate within their field. To find out more about this prize, have a look at our detailed feature examining the digital art market and why the accolade has been included in 2014.
It is also great to see such healthy Male and Female Entrepreneur of the Year categories. For a long time it has been levelled at the European business community that they are not able to build companies of scale like their US counterparts – but it’s safe to say that is not the case anymore considering the inclusions of JUST EAT’s David Buttress, NewVoiceMedia’s Jonathan Gale, Notonthehighstreet.com’s Holly Tucker and Buddi’s Sara Murray. They are all at the helm of market-leading companies that are inspiration for anyone starting out on the business building journey. And one look at the Exit of the Year section and it is obvious that British and European technology companies are commanding impressive multiples at sale.
In the meantime, here are some links from last year’s award – including interviews with HOWZAT Partners, Zoopla’s Alex Chesterman, SoundCloud’s Alexander Ljung and Notion Capital.
A full shortlist for Investor Allstars 2014 can also be found below.
Investor Allstars 2013:
- Dancing to his own beat
- Zoopla rises to the top
- In search of the next Trivago
- Banking on the cloud and SaaS
2014 full shortlist
VC Fund of the Year
Accel Partners
Idinvest
Index Ventures
Intel Capital
Northzone Ventures
Octopus Investment
Scottish Equity Partners
XAnge Private Equity
Exit of the Year
CarTrawler – (ECI Partners)
Criteo – (Elaia partners, IDInvest Partners)
Fjordnet – (Beringea)
JUST EAT – (Index Ventures, Vitruvian Partners)
King Digital Entertainment -(Index Ventures)
La Fourchette – (Serena Capital, Partech Ventures, Otium Capital)
Neolane – (Auriga Partners, XAnge Private Equity)
Supercell – (Atomico Investment, Accel Partners)
TDX (Investcorp Technology Partners)
Natural Motion – (SPARK Ventures, ISIS Innovation, Balderton)
Growth/Buyout of the Year
Business Growth Fund
Encore Capital
EQT Partners
Inflexion Private Equity
Investcorp Technology Partners
ISIS Equity Partners
Synova Capital
Technology Crossover Ventures
Vitruvian Partners
Investor of the Year
Ben Holmes, Index Ventures
Benoist Grossman, Idinvest Partners
Christophe Maire, Atlantic Internet
Kevin Comolli, Accel Partners
Nenad Marovac, DN Capital
Rory Stirling, MMC Ventures
Female Entrepreneur of the Year
Debbie Wosskow, Love Home Swap
Ekaterina Konovalova, IQcard
Fleur Emery, Green & Pleasant Lager / Emery Barnard Design
Holly Tucker, Notonthehighstreet
Kathryn Parson, Decoded
Nathalie Gaveau, Shopcade
Nicola McClafferty, Covetique
Sara Murray, Buddi
Male Entrepreneur of the Year
Alex Saint, Secret Escapes
Clive Jackson, FlyVictor
David Buttress, JUST EAT
Frédéric Mazzella, BlaBlaCar
Jonathan Gale, NewVoiceMedia
Kevin Cornils, GlassesDirect
Vijay Srinivasan, Cambridge Technology Partners
Corporate Development Team of the Year
Bertelsmann
Monitise
ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG
Shibsted Growth
St Ives
VCT of the Year
Albion Ventures
Edge Performance
Maven Capital Partners
Mobeus Equity Partners
Octopus Investments
ProVen Growth & Income VCT
YFM Equity Partners
Private Investor Network of the Year
Angel Academe
Crowdcube
Envestors
London Business Angels
Maven Investor Partners
Seedrs
Spintop
Equity Gap Fund of the Year
EC1 Capital Limited
High-Tech Gründerfonds
Midven
MMC Ventures
Notion Capital Partners
Passion Capital
Seraphim Capital
Sferiq Award for Digital Innovation in Art of the Year
Articheck
Artstack
Artsy
ArtViatic
ArtWeb .com
Paddle8
Rise Art
Saatchi Art
Sedition Art
Vastari
A big thank you to the headline sponsor of the Awards Sferiq, and also to sponsors Berenberg Bank, Orrick, PER, Bird & Bird, and JAGShaw Baker.
