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The nominees come from various sectors including green tech, cybersecurity and e-commerce, with the winner set to be announced on 8 March.
Nine companies have been nominated for this year’s Future Unicorn Award, which aims to highlight SMEs that have the potential to become European tech giants.
These young companies work across various sectors including green tech, cybersecurity and e-commerce, though six of the nine nominees have sustainability as a key focus. These scale-ups have all raised more than $1m in funding to date.
The award is a collaboration between national trade associations affiliated with Digital Europe, which has more than 45,000 member businesses who operate and invest in Europe.
The nominees were chosen by asking all the affiliated trade associations to select a single scale-up from their country. Digital Europe said this year’s selection showcases the diversity in the innovation landscape, as more than 60pc of the nominees are led by women.
Last year’s winner was Circulor, announced at Digital Europe’s flagship annual conference, Masters of Digital. In 2021, Hungary’s Oncompass Medicine won the award for its AI-based medical software.
The winner will be announced on 8 March by European commissioner Mariya Gabriel, at the Masters of Digital event in Brussels.
Here are the nine companies nominated for the Future Unicorn Award 2023:
AreyLight AI
This Turkish company focuses on making IoT systems autonomous to reduce expenses. The company is also working to control lighting units remotely without the need for infrastructural change.
DeltaQ
This Belgian scale-up has developed a cloud-based energy optimisation service to help real-estate professionals reduce CO2 emissions and gain energy savings.
Easee
Easee is a Norwegian green-tech company that develops, designs and manufactures products such as electric vehicle chargers. The scale-up currently exports across Europe and aims to be one of the largest green tech companies in Europe by 2026.
Libelium
This Spanish company was created from a university project in 2006. Its smart services and products focus on sustainability, smart cities and agri-food.
Plan A
Plan A is a software provider for corporate carbon accounting, decarbonisation and environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. The German company has developed a sustainability platform to help companies manage their journey to net-zero emissions.
Planet Heroes
This Polish scale-up is a community-based platform, which was built to promote ecological activities and provide a financial reward for people who clean up the planet.
Red Points
This is a digital revenue recovery platform based in Spain. The scale-up said it has more than 1,000 companies using the platform to deal with fake accounts, piracy impersonations and credential reselling.
Timbeter
Timbeter is focused on digitally transforming the forestry sector. The Estonian scale-up offers digital services with the goal of increasing the sector’s transparency, traceability and efficiency, while supporting sustainable forest management.
Wolt
This Finnish tech company made a commerce platform to help customers order various products from a single app, while helping merchants make more sales and offering couriers earnings flexibility.
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