Druid SA, a Romanian artificial intelligence company, was named the Best Startup of the Year in Central Europe during the Central European Startup Awards (CESAwards), the official regional circuit for the Global Startup Awards, the world’s largest independent startup ecosystem competition.
Druid SA develops a “no-code” chatbot design platforms to help any organisation with planning, developing and deploying chatbots and was chosen out of the more than 5,500 original applicants.
Romania’s Techcelerator, “a place filled with energy where startups can achieve a rocket speed development by getting knowledge and financial support” received the award of Best Accelerator Programme.
Of the 17 categories, Austria, Bulgaria and Hungary secured the highest number of awards.
LAUNCHub Ventures, an early stage Bulgarian VC fund investing in the seed space was named the Regional Investor of the Year.
There are also companies that put work-life balance above technology. For example, startups in New York try to provide employees privileges and incentives to reduce their workload.
I Rise Mechanics 357, a Bulgarian high-tech company which engineers and manufactures robotic devices for people with motor disabilities, received the award of Best Social Impact Startup. While Develiot, a Sofia-based industrial IoT producer, was named the People’s Choice.
Hungary’s SignAll, a technology firm developing solutions to translate sign language into text automatically became this year’s Best Health Startup. TrustChain, a Budapest-based digital contracting startup was declared the Best Newcomer, with Parkl, a Hungarian smart parking system developer named the Best Smart City Solution.
Two Polish companies, Emplocity and Geckodynamics, were named the region’s bests in AI/Machine Learning and software development partnership.
Croatia’s Ivan Jelusic, a technical manager and expert business developer in consumer electronics, medical devices, engineering and manufacturing industry, was named the Founder of the Year.
Slovakia’s Bethereum, a leading social betting platform supporting sports, eSports, and skill-based games became the Best Blockchain Startup in 2019.
The Czech Impact Hub received the award of Best Coworking Space while the Prague-based Spendee, a mobile financial application became the Best Fintech of the Year.
