Last Saturday, the Tech Awards Gala 2025 brought together an exceptional cross section of Europe’s technology ecosystem. Prominent startups, industry leaders, investors, ecosystem builders, and public stakeholders gathered to celebrate innovation, entrepreneurial excellence, and the shared ambition to strengthen Europe’s technological future.
The evening was organised in close collaboration with WLOUNGE, led by Mali M. Baum and her dedicated team, whose commitment and professionalism were instrumental to the gala’s success. The event was held under the patronage of Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner and Franziska Giffey, Senator for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises and Mayor of Berlin. Their patronage underscored the strategic importance of innovation for economic strength, competitiveness, and long term resilience.
The European Champions Alliance played a central role throughout the gala, acting as strategic jury members across ten award categories. ECA representatives Michel, Andrea, and Georgios contributed their experience and perspective, ensuring a rigorous and future oriented evaluation of Europe’s most promising ventures. This active involvement reflected ECA’s mission to champion excellence, support scale-up journeys, and connect startups with corporates and institutional partners across Europe.
A particular highlight of the evening was the participation of Georgios, ECA Supervisory Board Member, who presented two awards. Together with Alexander Mietzke, Managing Director of REHAU New Ventures, he awarded the Corporate Open Innovation category, recognising impactful collaboration between startups and established industry players. He also presented the Deep Tech award alongside the European Innovation Council and Mali M. Baum, celebrating ventures pushing the boundaries of science, engineering, and applied research.
The gala recognised outstanding applicants, finalists, and winners across a diverse set of categories, including FinTech, Corporate Open Innovation, Deep Tech, Sustainability, Healthcare and MedTech, AI, EdTech and Gaming, Diversity, PropTech, and Rising Star. Each category reflected a vital dimension of Europe’s innovation landscape and highlighted the creativity, ambition, and execution strength of its founders and teams. Above all, the evening celebrated collaboration, demonstrating the value created when corporate partners, public institutions, investors, and ecosystem organisations work together to nurture technology driven growth.
For ECA, the Tech Awards Gala 2025 reaffirmed the importance of a strong, connected innovation community. The Alliance remains committed to supporting European tech champions, enabling meaningful partnerships, and contributing to a competitive, sovereign, and values driven technology ecosystem. We invite our members, partners, and stakeholders to continue this journey with us through future collaborations, initiatives, and events that help shape the next chapter of European innovation.
