11/25/2009

Gildas Sorin (CEO, Novaled AG, 2nd from left)

The Audemars Piguet (AP) Cleantech Entrepreneur of the Year Award has been won by Novaled, a world leading company in the Organic Light-Emitting Diode field with the world record in power efficiency and over 400 patents granted or pending. George Coelho, Managing Director of Good Energies in the UK and member of the selection committee, was very impressed by the standard of entries and by Novaled, the Cleantech winner,  “European entrepreneurism in Cleantech is especially strong.  Serial entrepreneurs are increasingly moving away from IT and into Cleantech and we have the right infrastructure here to encourage that - environmental legislation in Europe is supportive and so is the VC community as well as the traditionally strong technical base.  The recession has not hit Cleantech investment in the slightest, there's even competition between VCs for the good deals.”
 
Companies submitting entries for the Awards had to be able to demonstrate an annual growth rate of at least 50% for the past three years, be founded no more than 10 years’ ago and have revenue originating from several countries. European origin management is preferred and ideally the company should still be run by the founders.
 
The Awards, now in their fourth year, are organised by Audemars Piguet in partnership with Schroder & Co Banque and European Tech Tour.  Other awards include the “Changing Times” European Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award (won by Gameforge) and the Schroders “Next Gem” (awarded to Meltwater).

For further details see the full press release version.