Today Dirk Paelinck spoke on behalf of the EU Proptech House at the Launch of PropTech Romania in Cluj-Napoca. He went there to show support and establish long-lasting relationships. The launch precedes the StartUp Europe Summit of the European Commission on March 21st and 22nd 2019.
In almost every European country, one or more PropTech networks are active that stimulate all the new startups and scale-ups in the field of digital innovation and disruptive transformation in the real estate sector.
In order for the European PropTech economy to get to the next level, steps need to be taken towards a uniform market, the scaling up of cross-border collaboration and the establishment of a regulatory framework to foster innovation on a European level.
The PropTech StartUp Europe Awards of the European Commission was the first European initiative to give visibility and support to the most promising startups in innovation in real estate.
The PropTech StartUp Europe Awards is a brand new category within the StartUp Europe Awards’ framework (22 categories), promoted by the European Commission and implemented by Finnova Foundation, which presents a prize methodology for startups at local, regional and national level, fostering the open innovation and the collaboration between the different actors of the European ecosystems, through the private-public partnership supporting new entrepreneurs. At the same time, it creates a network of contacts that will provide visibility to all the local startups who, by using this network, will be able to scale their services and products at a European and even global level. On its behalf, Finnova is a European foundation based in Belgium, Romania, Panama, Chile, and Mexico devoted to the promotion of start-ups and innovative initiatives for the collaboration between public and private entities relying on the tools offered by the European Union.
Professor Juanma Revuelta (Finnova Foundation): “Finnova, through the Startup Europe Accelerator, is willing to provide information and orientation to Startups providing disruptive innovations in the PropTech field as well as to the potential users of that innovation, such as big enterprises, Real State or the public sector seeking to innovate their management to reduce costs and improve their competitiveness”.
Dirk Paelinck (Workero): “The launch of the first PropTech Startup Europe Awards is clearly a sign of recognition by the European Commission of the importance and the huge potential of the innovative PropTech industry reshaping traditional real estate. Workero has been rewarded the Seal of Excellence of the European Commission and accepted recently in the comprehensive Horizon 2020 Program, SME Instrument for funding by the European Commission, we know how important it is to be recognized and to get support. That is why we launched the EU PropTech House initiative on September 19th 2018. Its first goals are promoting contacts with the EU Commission and the European Innovation Council, scale up cross-border collaboration and facilitate access to EU Funding.”
All European PropTech startups were invited to submit their case between September 17th and December 31th on the website of EU PropTech House (http://www.proptechhouse.eu). Our professional jury rated the projects in every respective category. The jury is composed of industry experts from across Europe and of the board members of PropTech House. Judging procedures ran until February 28th 2019. The 50 shortlisted startups (10 per category) were invited to a live-pitch session in May 2019 in Brussels, in the presence of the board members, the Representative of the European Commissioner and all the jury members.
The winners in all categories and the Proptech EU Unicorn will be announced at the MIPIM in Paris on July 2nd 2019 in the presence of the Representative of the European Commission.
StartUp Europe Awards is part of StartUp Europe and is an initiative of the European Commission and the Finnova Foundation, supported by the President of the European Parliament, the President of the Committee of the Regions, the Vice-President of the Economic and Social Committee and several members from the European Parliament. SEUA is supported by the StartUp Europe Accelerator of the Finnova Foundation.
The organization of the PropTech StartUp Europe Awards will be handled by Finnova Foundation, Workero, and the brand new EU PropTech House. The mission of the EU PropTech House is to support a sustainable European PropTech market and to create a positive impact on the European living environment and beyond. The objectives will be to facilitate access to EU Funding, scale-up cross-border collaborations, to standardize and uniform the European PropTech markets, and to create a legal framework adapted to the PropTech, and fostering innovations in Real Estate.
The EU PropTech House enjoys the support of partners such as Finnova (Professor Manuel Revuelta), Workero (Dirk Paelinck) and the national or area PropTech associations in Europe, together with an advisory board headed by Idriss Goossens, founding board member and composed of PropTech Poland, PropTech NL, PropTech South East Europe, Finnovating (Spain) and PropTech Lab (Belgium), while 7 other national PropTech associations are in the process of on-boarding now.
