The UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) will launch the first ever European edition of its celebrated start-ups programme, the Tech Rocketship Awards, at The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam.
The Awards are seeking entries from every corner of Europe in a bid to identify the brightest and best tech companies and help them on their journey towards internationalisation, offering the opportunity to experience a paid-for, fully-tailored market visit to the UK. The entries will be judged by experts on a country level before going through to a European grand finale with live pitches in front of high-profile judges that will include business leaders, venture capitalists, dealmakers and tech specialists.
The objective of the awards is to accelerate the global growth of the winners, through personally-curated direct meetings with the UK’s world-leading ecosystem of investors, incubators and tech clusters.
Following the success of programmes in India, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand, The Tech Rocketship Awards Europe are open to established European scale-ups who offer innovative, technology-led solutions across a wide spectrum of industries and are ready to internationalise.
The awards will help 8 winners gain exposure, expand their global networks, and expedite the set-up of their UK operations through a paid-for, curated trip to the UK in mid-2020 and a bespoke package of support to help them quickly establish and succeed in the UK.
The Tech Rocketship Award Categories in Europe are:
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Economy and Digital Security
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Tech for Health and Wellbeing
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The AI and Data Revolution
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The Future of Mobility & Travel
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Clean Growth (Cleantech)
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Feeding the Nation (Agritech)
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Connected Consumers and Creativity
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GREAT Tech for Change Award
As part of the outreach programme, DIT will run a series of workshops in November in partnership with the Global Entrepreneur Programme aimed at providing prospective applicants, and those interested in expanding to the UK, with expert advice on:
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Pitching for investment
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Refining your global marketing strategy
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An update on the thriving UK tech ecosystem
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Insights from companies who have successfully expanded to the UK
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Information on the Tech Rocketship Awards and how you could win a place
Richard Burn, Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Europe, said:
The UK is the number one country in Europe for Unicorns. Our tech sector is the home of forward-thinking innovators, and the home of Europe’s most ambitious scale-ups. There is no better place for them to grow than the UK.
One of the key roles DIT plays is to help the best companies from around the world thrive on a global level through the tech ecosystem that exists in the UK. What Tech Rocketships will do for the lucky winners is give them a rocket-powered, fully-tailored direct route to the financiers, incubators, tech-savvy customers, and all the infrastructure that they need to help them take that next great leap from scale-up to unicorn status.
I urge every great tech business in Europe looking to internationalise to enter these Awards and to look out for our activities in your country.
Closing date for submissions is 15 November 2020. Full details about the competition, including terms and conditions are on the Tech Rocketship Awards website. Winners will be announced in March 2021.
Contact
Email Robert Logie, Head of Marketing & Communications, Europe at Robert.logie@trade.gov.uk
