First 20 judges for Europas revealed

27 Nov 2012

The first 20 judges for the European start-up awards – The Europas – have been named. More than 1,000 people will attend the awards in Berlin in January, the event’s organisers tell us.

The awards will take place at the Postbahnhof space in the heart of Berlin on 22 January. The 20 judges include Cloudflare founder and CEO Matthew Prince, Wonga founder and CEO Erroll Damelin, MG Siegler of Crunchfund, as well as venture capitalists that include Megan Quinn of KPCB, Nic Brisbourne of DFJ Esprit and Stefan Glaenzer of Passion Capital.

More than 500 entries have already been received across almost 30 categories at this year’s Europas and now there’s just one day left until the close of nominations (Wednesday, 11.59pm).

Past winners have included Spotify, SoundCloud, Mind Candy, Rovio and Wonga.

Last week, the Europas 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, the Nordics, Germany, Russia, MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and others. The regional awards will be presented by the judges at a lunch in Berlin on the afternoon of the event.

The Europas get bigger and bigger

In recent weeks, the team behind the Dublin Web Summit took over the running of the Europas, which were started in 2009 by TechCrunch Europe editor Mike Butcher.

Butcher will chair the judging panel, which consists of the following first round judges: