For your calendar: the ninth edition of Innovation Origins’ Gerard & Anton Awards will take place on August 31

Alle winnaars van de Gerard & Anton Award 2022

By Bart Brouwers

Every year, Innovation Origins puts ten start-ups from the Brainport region in the spotlight. These are ten innovative start-ups of which we expect great things in the coming year. A Gerard & Anton Award is waiting for each of these start-ups: not only as a reward for recent development but mainly as an incentive to go even further. The previous eight editions show that this helps: the success rate of the former winners is above average. That conclusion was substantiated last year via the results of the extensive survey of former winners by Strategy Unit and IO.

The date for the ninth Gerard & Anton Awards has been chosen: Aug. 31
Nominations for one of the ten winners are welcome until July 1
send your suggestions to [email protected]

The exceptional success of start-ups in Brainport Eindhoven can directly be linked to the characteristics and conditions of the region

Research by Strategy Unit reveals the determining factors behind the exceptional success rate for start-ups in Brainport Eindhoven.

The selection for the ninth edition of this event takes place with the help of you, the public, and an expert jury led by Alderman Stijn Steenbakkers. The presentation will be on 31 August at 17:00 (location to be announced). Like last year, the presentation is in the hands of Beatrix Bos and Bert-Jan Woertman. Registration for the event starts soon (keep an eye on our website!), but your nominations are already welcome: send them before July 1 to [email protected]. Hey, July 1, isn’t that very soon? Yes, that is – this way, the jury deliberations can take place before the summer vacations.

History of the Gerard & Anton Award

Since 2014, we have had a total of 80 winners on stage. As of 2016, this is done under the name “Gerard & Anton Award,” after the best-known startup from the region: Philips. Across the board, the success rate of the winning startups is unprecedentedly high: where, on average, about 15-20% of startups are structurally successful, with this group, it is more than 75%.

Among the former winners are well-known names such as:

Sorama (2014, founder Rick Scholte was awarded Engineer of the Year a few years later).
Ioniqa (2015, now the company makes recycled bottles for Coca-Cola)
Smart Photonics (2015, now driving the global photonics industry)
LifeSense (2016, with the now globally sold underwear sensor that can prevent incontinence)
Sendcloud (2016, one of the scarce Dutch unicorns)
Lightyear (2017, the solar car that taught the world about ups and downs, and ups again)
Xeltis (2017, with the revolutionary technology around the ‘growing with you’ artificial heart)
Ebusco (2019, now selling electric buses around the world, competing with the Chinese)
Carbyon (2020, busy making CO2 an opportunity rather than a problem)
Axelera AI (2022, now 50 million in investments further)

The bar to put together a good top-10 is high. Who do we want to nominate for this year? Which start-up is still quietly working now but will make a big move tomorrow? Let us know, and in doing so, help the jury prtoduce a long list: [email protected].