And the Webit Congress StartUp Challenge Winners are...

Designed to introduce the most promising startup companies, the Webit StartUp Challenge attracted a total of 503 startups from all over the New Digital Markets and saw 21 selected finalists. The award, provided by the Chairman of e-Academy and founder of Webit Congress, Mr. Plamen Russev, was a free stand at Webit Congress 2012, Istanbul and the opportunity to pitch on stage in front of amazing number of VCs, investors and potential partners during the event.

18 of the finalists were selected by a Jury and the other three joined the pack after an online voting. More than 6000 visitors from 72 countries visited the Congress and the StartUp Village, where the finalists had their booths arranged.

At the end of Webit each of the 21 finalists (from 18 different countries) had 5 minutes to pitch in front of the StartUp Jury. The Jury evaluated the winners by 4 criteria - uniqueness of the concept/technology, market approach, scalability and presentation skills.

The winner of Webit StartUp Challenge 2012 is mySugr (www.mysugr.com, @mysugr) - a company, founded by 2 people diagnosed with diabetes, that aims to save lives using smartphones, games and user experience. mySugr is CE-marked medical device and already partnering with Sanofi Aventis in Austria. The second place went to Sellbox s.c. (www.sellboxhq.com, @SellboxHQ) from Poland - a service which allows you to sell any file you have in your Dropbox.

The third award went to InfoDif Co. Ltd (www.infodif.com/en, @InfoDif) - a company specialized in image processing and video analytics for several fields, including military and civil security, retail, industrial automation and medical imaging. The special mention award went to Nevahold (www.nevahold.com, @neva_hold) from Ghana - a mobile and web service that seeks to eliminate the most frustrating and time-consuming part in the customer service delivery process.

But the success doesn’t end there. You don’t have to be the winner of the Webit Startup Challenge to receive recognition and funding. The achievements of all companies involved in the Webit Startup Challenge, both start-ups and innovators, demonstrate the value of the initiative. Whether by gaining feedback from leading VC investors, starting conversations with potential clients or generating funding, the Startup Challenge proved to be highly valuable in terms of offering exposure and networking opportunities to the participants. It proves the efficiency of the new network we aim to build, where start-ups receive exposure to potential investors, partners and clients, thus accommodating their development within the digital ecosystem.