hub.awards2019: full marks

At the end of a prestigious ceremony at the BOZAR on Thursday 20 June, the first hub.awards were awarded to six Brussels businesses that embody the expertise and daring of Brussels-based entrepreneurs. Find out who is behind these innovative and rebellious projects…

Almost 1200 of you were invited to take your seats at 7pm in the famous Henry Le Bœuf Hall for the hub.awards2019 prize-giving ceremony. Established and up-coming entrepreneurs, accompanying organisations, brothers, sisters or distant cousins: everyone grasped the novelty of this initiative.

Because the hub.awards highlight the inspirational, innovative, daring and, of course, the ‘Brussels’ nature of the companies in the region. The prizes are awarded on the basis of values that everyone at hub.brussels considers essential in order to engage in tomorrow. “I am proud of the prize list of this first event and of these businesses. They wonderfully embody the fact that it is possible to manage a business by impacting upon society in a positive way.” explains Isabelle Grippa, hub.brussels CEO.

Diverse and qualitative projets 

At the end of a large-scale campaign, close to 150 applications were submitted. After deliberation, the panel, comprising professionals in the entrepreneurship sector, singled out 3 businesses for each prize category.

Arnaud Jacquet, Vice-Chairman of Solvay and panel member, was pleasantly surprised by the quality and diversity of the entries. “They exhibit a great deal of creativity, innovation, expertise and soft skills! Many of the projects aim to help others, fostering communication between individuals, while, obviously, doing good business. They prove that these are not incompatible.”

On the evening itself, the panel announced the names of the willing businesses for each category. The business winning the Public’s Prize was voted for by the audience attending on the evening of the ceremony, as well as by BX1 viewers who followed the ceremony live.

The hub.awards 2019 winning businesses are:

• in the Start category:Spentys. Nominated: BC Materials and Zarafa
• in the Grow category:SUMY. Nominated: Simone a Soif! and Wooclap
• in the Invest category:co. Nominated: Farrah Floyd and Sake Bar
• in the Export – Goods category:APA-Intemporal. Nominated: Corniche and Whoo Whoo Whoo
• in the Export – Services category: wannapplay. Nominated: Edebex and Kazidomi
• for the Public’s Prize: Skyfarms. Nominated: Story to Line and Simone a soif!

A difficult choice

For the panel members, the diversity and quality of the applications made it tough to make their choice, but they do demonstrate the dynamism of Brussels entrepreneurship.“For a public body responsible for finding business development solutions, this is the greatest source of motivation,” explains Benjamin Cadranel, CEO of Citydev.brussels and panel member.

For Aurélie Dekegeleer, head of REB, the Réseau Entreprendre Bruxelles and panel member, the hub.awards make it possible to showcase a collections of gems, including both start-ups and scale-ups, and at the same time, stimulate an innovative, Brussels-based, entrepreneurial ecosystem. “Brussels can be proud to have such businesses that make a difference and impact society in a positive way. They are examples to follow.”

This fist event is supported by the Brussels region, Finance & Invest Brussels and Cityde.brussels. Didier Gosuin, Brussels Regional Minister of Economy and Employment, says: “Two years ago, the Brussels region decided to merge three business support institutions by creating one single Agency, hub.brussels. Today, the success of the hub.awards demonstrates how good this choice was. And, moreover, it has initiated excellent collaborations with other public organisations.”

Returning in 2020

The hub.awards have created such enthusiasm amongst the teams, partners, panel members and businesses that it is clear that a second event will be held in 2020. According to Isabelle Grippa, CEO of hub.brussels, “The hub.awards are an excellent showcase to publicise, in Belgium and abroad, these Brussels entrepreneurs who embody the new conception of the economy, an economy that has social, technological and environmental impact.”

Learn more about our 6 laureates!