European 'spirit of enterprise' winners announced as plans to create e-content start-up fund are investigated
The winners of the 2001 European awards for the spirit of enterprise, organised by the Belgium-based non-profit organisation JEE (Young European Entrepreneur), were announced in Brussels on 15 November. The awards were allocated to the best business plans submitted in four categories: spin-off, seed, start-up and expansion and innovation. They are designed to promote the spirit of enterprise in European countries in order to encourage new enterprise growth. The 'spin-off' category was won by Bisconti Francesco from Italy for his 'T. C. Project' on a telephone box which works using a customer SIM card like those found in mobile phones. The 'seed' category was awarded to the UK's Udo Dengel for his 'TBsC Technology' company which will be launched as a spin-off from Imperial College London to develop a 'smart' technique for reducing costs and improving safety for gas turbines in the power generation and aerospace engine sectors. Timo Heikkilä from Finland won the 'start-up' category with an initiative called 'Upponetti Oy' which designs, develops and markets technologies and products which will help to build Internet connectivity. The final category of the award, 'expansion and innovation,' was snapped up by Frenchman Daniel Licari for 'Stem Alpha,' which works on the ex-vivo manipulation of stem cells, with potential applications in cellular and genic therapy and the production of vaccines. The JEE is currently developing a European investment structure independent from the JEE. It is hoped that the European fund for start-ups (EFS) will invest in the best European new and expanding e-content enterprises from 2002. A feasibility study is currently underway for the European Commission's Information Society DG to investigate the possibility of creating the fund for start-ups in the area of digital content. The JEE's Ruben Lombaert is a project manager for the EFS initiative. He explained that the fund, which would cover enterprises in the area of electronic publishing, CD ROMs and WAP technology, may choose to make use of the business evaluations carried out by the JEE awards selection committees in order to allocate funding. Mr Lombaert emphasised, however, that there are no definite financial or organisational links between the EFS and the European awards for the spirit of enterprise. The feasibility study, the idea for which came about because of the large number of digital content business plans submitted to the JEE awards, is being carried out under 'Action line 1: Improving access to and use of public sector information' of the eContent programme. The study is expected to run until no later than March 2002, with implementation of the EFS within months if the decision is taken to go ahead with it. The funding for the e-content start-ups would be provided by major banks, pension funds and venture capitalists, with both local-level and hands-on co-investment by financial backers. The EFS is seen as a potential way of further boosting the use of Internet technology through the creation and support of Internet-related enterprises. Mr Lombaerts said that the EFS could provide an important bridge between investors and digital content start-ups. 'There's not a problem with money in Europe,' he said, but explained that 'most venture capitalists don't understand all the companies they are investing in' and that digital content in particular 'has difficult terminology and can be difficult to assess.'
Countries
Italy