Applications open for SuperNova International VC conference in Antwerp

SuperNova is a newly launched international tech conference that will take place in Antwerp, Belgium this autumn. The focus is gathering growth stage investors and a unique line-up of high-growth scale-ups from across Europe, invited by international VCs, to pitch and meet for two days on September 27-28, 2018.

SuperNova is a new international tech conference organized by Scale-Ups.eu and Flanders DC and is set in Antwerp this fall. It will invite thought leaders on stage such as Philip Ingelbrecht (founder of the most widely-used music app Shazam), Seth Godin (marketing expert and best selling author of 18 business and creativity books), Vivienne Ming (big data specialist and one of the top 10 women to watch in tech) and more to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

SuperNova also invites international deep pocket investors to meet 55 growth data tech companies and more than 150 investors from all over the world during the first two days of the conference.
Investors and VCs in SaaS, big data, mobile, IoT and e-commerce investing in high technology tech companies are invited to participate. At SuperNova's investor zone, investors can meet 55 fast-growing, often disruptive, technology scale-ups from across Europe.

"Being time efficient is the essence of all entrepreneurship. SuperNova saves time for both scale-ups and VC investors by pairing them for two days. As a result, we at Scale-Ups.eu can help accelerate growth in the company or in the portfolio”, says Jurgen Ingels, Founder Scale-Ups.eu.

The goal of the SuperNova Investor Pitching track is to match international funding with successful European scale-ups that are ready to grow further. Each growth company will have 10 minutes to pitch its solutions, results and ambitions. During the breaks, investors can invite scale-ups to separate meetings to gain a deeper understanding of the investment opportunities. All investors will also receive a brochure containing company information and contact information to all pitching companies.

Unique scale-ups selection approach: for VCs by VCs
The 55 ’best of the best’ European growth companies are handpicked by the organizer Scale-Ups.eu and their internationally-recognized VC fund partners.

SuperNova’s selecting VCs are:

• JVP is Israel's leading $ 1.2 billion fund, ranked several times by Preqin as one of ten of the world's most consistent performing VC companies, a "powerhouse" that facilitates 12 IPO listings on NASDAQ and the best curator of tech companies from Israel. SuperNova is proud to invite most promising companies from the high-tech startup nation Israel.
• Columbia Lake Partners is an experienced team of investors providing growth loans to European technology companies. In prior roles, it has extended credit and managed portfolio relationships of greater than £300 million to over 100 companies such as Showpad, Falcon.io, BrightPearl, Amplience a.o.

• Fortino Capital invests in digital and applied technology in the Benelux. Fortino Capital is a key player with high growth successes such as Aproplan, Piesync, Bloomon, Teamleader and TrendMiner. Fortino co-curates the Benelux companies for SuperNova.
• Prime Ventures is a leading venture capital and growth equity firm focused on investing in European companies in the technology and related industries. Prime invested in more than 50 companies since it started its operations in 1999 such as ZipDial, Falcon.io, Almotive, DealersDirect, TakeAway.com, Tripaneer a.o. Prime co-curates scale-ups from Netherlands for SuperNova.
• Runa Capital is a technology-focused venture capital firm whose investments have created or incubated companies with more than $10B in assets. Runa invests in software applications and infrastructure for the new economy. From Acumatica to Nginx to Zopa, Runa invested in over 60 companies in 12 different countries. Runa co-curates the scale-ups from Eastern Europe for SuperNova.
• SmartFin Capital is a lean independent private equity fund targeting smart technologies with a special focus on Financial Technologies. SmartFin Capital has invested in MariaDB, Silverfin, Materialise (NASDAQ: MTLS) a.o. Smartfin co-curates the Benelux companies for SuperNova.
• HPE Growth Capital (“HPE”) is focused on growth capital investments in technology companies throughout Northern Europe, with an emphasis on Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. HPE’s portfolio companies have grown at an average of 45% annually and since its investments, more than 800 new jobs have been created within its portfolio companies. HPE co-curates the North European companies for SuperNova.
• Idinvest Partners is a pan-European private equity manager focused on the low and middle market segments. With over six billion euros under management, the company has expertise in equity investments in buyout deals, as well as primary and secondary investments accross Europe. Portfolio includes: Clear2Pay, BlaBlaCar, Meetic, Deezer and many more. Paris based Idinvest co-curates the French companies for SuperNova.
• Volta Ventures is a venture capital firm that offers seed & early stage VC for internet & software companies in the Benelux. Volta co-curates the Benelux companies for SuperNova.

SuperNova also has the full support of Belgian Venture Capital Association (BVA) to warmly welcome international guest investors.

Criteria for participating growth companies
The tech scale-ups that will be able to pitch on SuperNova are selected based on double-checked criteria to ensure a solid lineup of hidden gems looking for follow-up investment. The criteria are:

• Annual recurring revenue of at least 3 million euros in 2017
• Minimum funding of EUR 1 million and a maximum of EUR 40 million (excluding loans)
• Average annual growth of more than 20 percent in the last three years
• A big appetite for follow-up investments – Series B and Series C funding – with a minimum ball park amount of 5 EUR million

Open call

Scale-Ups.eu has the ambition of putting the most promising European growth companies in the spotlight for this investor event. If a growth company qualifies according to the criteria of Scale-Ups.eu and wishes to pitch on SuperNova, you can submit your application via:
http://scale-ups.eu/preselections.eu.

Early bird pass for investors to SuperNova Investor Pitching is available at: http://supernovafest.eu/investor-pitching

For more information contact:
Bruno Vandegehuchte, Scale-Ups.eu
Bruno.vandegehuchte@scale-ups.eu
+32 472 65 40 44