Who is running these awards?

The awards are run by Nesta and Mind The Bridge as part of the Startup Europe Partnership - a pan-european initiative to help startups scale, which has received funding from the European Commission under grant number 780601. They will be launched with Mr. Jyrki Katainen, European Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness.

Who are the judges?

The Judging Committee is central to the success of the Europe’s Corporate Startup Stars. It will have the important and delicate role of selecting the most ‘startup friendly’ corporates in Europe. The Committee will be composed of experts who are familiar with startups and / or corporate innovation.

What is the process?

Step 1: Open call for nominations (May 2018)

Step 2: Nesta and Mind the Bridge will ask for evidence from nominated corporates (May-June 2018)

Step 3: Nesta and Mind the bridge will collate corporates responses and assemble a preliminary ranking (May-June 2018)

Step 4: The Judging Committee will review the ranking and select Europe’s Corporate Startup Stars. Nesta will notify shortlisted firms (September 2018)

Step 5: Launch of the Europe’s Corporate Startup Stars Award Ceremony (November-December 2018)

When can I submit a nomination?

Entries open on the 1 May 2018 and must be submitted by 11.59pm (GMT) on the 1 June 2018. Nominations received outside this time period may not be considered.

What are eligibility criteria?

Nominees must be large organisations active in Europe. A nominator may only nominate each nominee once but can submit multiple nominations for different organisations.

How do you define ’large companies’?

We will use the European Commission definition, which define large companies as firms which:

• Have more than 250 employees
• Have an annual turnover greater than 50 million euros or a balance sheet totalling more than 43 million euros

What’s the difference between startup and scaleup?

A ‘scaleup’ is an enterprise with average growth in employees or turnover greater than 20 per cent per annum over a three year period, and with more than 10 employees at the beginning of the observation period. Also, a scaleup should have raised more than 1 million euros from the beginning of registration. A startup is a company that is in the first stage of its operations. These companies are often initially bankrolled by their entrepreneurial founders as they attempt to capitalize on developing a product or service for which they believe there is a demand.

Can I nominate several large companies active in Europe?

Yes, you can nominate more than one large company active in Europe.