Aix-En-Provence, France, Oct. 30 2009–INSIDE Contactless, the world leader in advanced open-standard contactless chip technologies today announced it has been shortlisted for the Audemars Piguet “Changing Times” European Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award, co-sponsored by Schroder & Co Banque and the European Tech Tour Association (ETT). The winner will be announced on 19th November 2009 at the Award dinner in Geneva.

The selection committee is composed of representatives from Google, Good Energies, the European Tech Tour Association (ETT), Wellington Partners, Sofinnova, Go4Venture, Partech, Accel Partners, Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and Northzone Ventures.

Sven Lingjaerde, founder and president of European Tech Tour said, “Entrepreneurship in Europe remains buoyant and the pipeline is very exciting. European companies are typically more capital efficient than their US counterparts, which helps particularly at a time when cash is a scarce resource. Online and mobile gaming are obviously big right now; Software as a Service, IT dematerialization and cleantech are the hot areas to watch. Interestingly, many European e-commerce companies succeed at a national level but only a few are able to do a successful international roll out in that space.”

The Audemars Piguet awards have grown in popularity every year since the launch in 2006 and this year there were over 180 entrants. Past winners have been consistently successful after achieving their prizes. For example, the 2006 winner, MySQL, was sold for $1 billion to Sun Microsystems soon after winning the award. QlikTech, the winner in 2008 has had revenue growth of 80% over the last three years. They have over 425,000 users at 9760 customers in 90 countries; are projecting to take $500 million by the end of 2011 and they have an ecosystem that is generating another $500 million in revenue.

Audemars Piguet created the Changing Times Award to honour the company that has made the greatest impact on the greatest number of people in a minimum of time. 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. Further details here.

Audemars Piguet

Founded in 1875 by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet in the Swiss village of Le Brassus, Audemars Piguet is the oldest fine watchmaking manufacturer never to have left the hands of the founding families. At the heart of the Vallée de Joux, its master-watchmakers dedicate their unique expertise and know-how to creating a range of exclusive products composed of high-precision watches and jewellery watches, designed and crafted with legendary care. Throughout its history, Audemars Piguet has adopted avant-garde technologies which have enabled it to develop an unparalleled number of world firsts in the field of Haute Horlogerie. http://www.audemarspiguet.com

Schroders

Schroders, a global investment-management company, was established in 1804 and the Schroder family still controls 47% of the voting shares. Schroders Plc, one of Britain’s major listed private companies, has been present in Switzerland since 1967. Its offices in Zurich and Geneva (since 1984) look after local and international private and institutional investors. Schroder & Co Banque SA offers a wide range of asset-management and credit services (with £115 billion, group-wide, currently under management). As part of a leading international asset-management organisation, the company combines a well-established local presence with the international resources and global perspective of the Schroder Group.

http://www.schroders.com

The European Tech Tour Association (ETT)

European Tech Tour (ETT) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation which recognises that continued prosperity in Europe lies in its ability to transform today’s innovative projects into tomorrow’s global technology leaders. Its goal is to promote European entrepreneurship and provide a platform for entrepreneurs and investors to meet, ideally leading to funding or facilitation of high technology companies looking to expand internationally. ETT organizes two country specific tours per year to identify the best emerging companies in a geographical region, as well as two vertical industry events to capture the most innovative European companies in a specific industry segment, such as Semiconductor, Cleantech, Medtech and Web & Mobility. http://www.techtour.com

About INSIDE Contactless

INSIDE Contactless is the global leader in open-standard contactless payment and Near Field Communication (NFC) semiconductors and software that power the next generation of payment, transit, identity and access control applications. The company’s intelligent, microprocessor-based platforms offer the flexibility to be embedded in smart cards, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices, documents, badges and other items to support a wide range of innovative contactless applications and bring new levels of convenience to users. INSIDE has delivered more than 300 million contactless platforms worldwide to customers and partners that include many of the leading payment card and mobile phone manufacturers, systems integrators and financial institutions. With a portfolio of 60 families of patents, including several essential NFC patents, the company has played a leading role in NFC and contactless innovation. INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Warsaw, Seoul and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit http://www.insidecontactless.com.

For further information

Annette Bley
annette@annettebleypr.com
+44 20 7482 4800
+44 7973 801132 (mobile)

Juliane Gauthier
Juliane.gauthier@audemarspiguet.com
+41 21 845 1472
+41 79 535 0271 (mobile)

Laurian Krell
laurian@techtour.com
+41 22 544 60 62
+41 79 367 61 16 (mobile)