Public voting for the People’s Choice Award for Europe’s hottest start-ups at The Europas, which take place in Berlin on 22 January, has begun in earnest, with some 12,000 votes logged in the last 24 hours. It has also emerged that Lady Gaga’s manager Troy Carter and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim have been added to the list of judges.
While most of the award winners at the Europas will be chosen by a panel of judges, the People’s Choice category gives you the chance to chose which start-up has impressed you in 2012 – whether it’s a giant like Spotify or a rising star like Zeptolabs – this is your chance. Voting is now open, with a full list of Europa’s nominees online. Voting will remain open until mid-January.
Originally launched and run in London by Mike Butcher of TechCrunch, this year’s Europas are a co-production with Paddy Cosgrave of Dublin Web Summit and F.ounders fame.
Almost 1,000 entries were received across almost 30 categories for this year’s Europas. This year, The Europas has also expanded to include a number of regional categories. These awards will focus on the best start-up in a particular region or country, including the best start-up in the UK, Ireland, Nordics, Germany, Russia, MENA and others.
Regional awards
The regional awards will be presented by the judges at a lunch in Berlin on the afternoon of the event. Past winners have included Spotify, SoundCloud, MindCandy, Rovio and Wonga.
Judges for the event include partners with Kleiner Perkins, Accel, Index, Google Ventures, and Crunchfund, entrepreneurs like Jawed Karim (founder of YouTube and Youniversity Ventures), Errol Damelin (founder of Wonga), Michael Birch (founder of Bebo, Monkey Inferno), Matthew Prince (founder of Cloudflare) and Lady Gaga manager and angel investor Troy Carter.
Journalists from TechCrunch, The Next Web, Venturebeat, Reuters, Siliconrepublic.com and some of the leading blogs across Europe are also judging at The Europas.
Among the Irish judges will be Siliconrepublic.com’s own editor John Kennedy, and Noel Ruane, venture partner with Polaris Ventures, with further judges to be named in coming days.
Berlin image via Shutterstock
