Today the prestigious LOEY foundation presented the nominees that are in the running for the new LOEY Talent Award. With the prize, the independent organization awards entrepreneurs in the Dutch online industry with the most talent and ambition. Which nominees stand out the most?
Talent
Every year the LOEY foundation awards the best Dutch online entrepreneur of the past year. This year however, a new award that is specifically made for the recognition of new talent is also introduced. In other words: people who we should definitely look out for, and hope to hear more from in the near future.
Out of 225 submissions, the organization’s expert panel nominated five contenders for the prize: Jeroen Arts (Deskbookers), Nick Bortot (BUX), Micha Hernandez van Leuffen (Wercker), Martijn Nijhuis (Roamler) en Hans Ober (TicketSwap). The panel chose these contenders based on their accomplished growth, ideas and innovation, emphasizing on the development the entrepreneur has gone through in the past few years – people who have big, important ideas.
BUX
So which of these five nominees stand out the most? First we have Nick Bortot (BUX). BUX is a straightforward app that makes it easy and fun to trade stock in a safe and casual way. Bortrot noticed that a lot of consumers had the desire and interest to start investing money, but that a proper and easy to use safe platform was missing. Bortot has big ambitions and aims to be active in the whole of Europe in the coming two years. Another impressive fact: the startup received a big investment of 6.1 million euro’s from the German based Holtzbrinck Ventures.
Ticketswap
Another favorite contender is Hans Ober of Ticketswap. The popularity of the second hand e-ticket selling and buying platform grew by storm last year, with a great implementation and use of social media. The numbers don’t lie: TicketSwap already has 900.000 active users in The Netherlands, and Ober wishes to further grow the business across borders in the near future. With their disruptive ideas, well designed and functional platform and fast growth, it’s a serious contender for the award.
Out of the five nominees, the expert panel will chose three entrepreneurs that will go on to the finals on the 7th of September. There, each of the nominees will have the chance to convince an audience of 250 successful online entrepreneurs  of their ideas and ambitions. The audience will then cast their vote who will win the prize.
