Prolific VC investors and trailblazing entrepreneurs make Investor Allstars shortlist

The shortlist for this year’s Investor Allstars awards has been announced, and it’s a veritable who’s who of the entrepreneurial and growth company landscape.

From VC Fund of the Year to Male and Female Entrepreneurs of the Year, Investor Allstars is back for its 12th outing on 24 September for what is described as the Oscars for the European venture capital community.

Held in partnership between GrowthBusiness and GP Bullhound, the awards will look back on a period which has seen unheralded growth in deal numbers, multi-million pound exits and impressive business expansion.

The day will also see the second outing of Europe’s Allstar company, when five leading lights will take to the stage and then be judged by a room full of their peers and investors. This year we’ll hear from the founding teams of Achica, BlaBlaCar, Farfetch, NewVoiceMedia and ZoundIndustries. Bloomberg will be hosting the morning event, broadcasting the presentations to its audience.

To shake up the event this year we’ve introduced two new award categories, Corporate Development Team of the Year and the Sferiq Award for Digital Innovation in Art. The latter will recognise a company or individual in the art industry who has used digital technology or the internet to disrupt and innovate within their field. To find out more about this prize, have a look at our detailed feature examining the digital art market and why the accolade has been included in 2014.

It is also great to see such healthy Male and Female Entrepreneur of the Year categories. For a long time it has been levelled at the European business community that they are not able to build companies of scale like their US counterparts – but it’s safe to say that is not the case anymore considering the inclusions of JUST EAT’s David Buttress, NewVoiceMedia’s Jonathan Gale, Notonthehighstreet.com’s Holly Tucker and Buddi’s Sara Murray. They are all at the helm of market-leading companies that are inspiration for anyone starting out on the business building journey. And one look at the Exit of the Year section and it is obvious that British and European technology companies are commanding impressive multiples at sale.

In the meantime, here are some links from last year’s award – including interviews with HOWZAT Partners, Zoopla’s Alex Chesterman, SoundCloud’s Alexander Ljung and Notion Capital.

A full shortlist for Investor Allstars 2014 can also be found below.

Investor Allstars 2013:

2014 full shortlist

VC Fund of the Year

Accel Partners

Idinvest

Index Ventures

Intel Capital

Northzone Ventures

Octopus Investment

Scottish Equity Partners

XAnge Private Equity

Exit of the Year

CarTrawler – (ECI Partners)

Criteo – (Elaia partners, IDInvest Partners)

Fjordnet – (Beringea)

JUST EAT – (Index Ventures, Vitruvian Partners)

King Digital Entertainment -(Index Ventures)

La Fourchette – (Serena Capital, Partech Ventures, Otium Capital)

Neolane – (Auriga Partners, XAnge Private Equity)

Supercell – (Atomico Investment, Accel Partners)

TDX (Investcorp Technology Partners)

Natural Motion – (SPARK Ventures, ISIS Innovation, Balderton)

Growth/Buyout of the Year

Business Growth Fund

Encore Capital

EQT Partners

Inflexion Private Equity

Investcorp Technology Partners

ISIS Equity Partners

Synova Capital

Technology Crossover Ventures

Vitruvian Partners

Investor of the Year

Ben Holmes, Index Ventures

Benoist Grossman, Idinvest Partners

Christophe Maire, Atlantic Internet

Kevin Comolli, Accel Partners

Nenad Marovac, DN Capital

Rory Stirling, MMC Ventures

Female Entrepreneur of the Year

Debbie Wosskow, Love Home Swap

Ekaterina Konovalova, IQcard

Fleur Emery, Green & Pleasant Lager / Emery Barnard Design

Holly Tucker, Notonthehighstreet

Kathryn Parson, Decoded

Nathalie Gaveau, Shopcade

Nicola McClafferty, Covetique

Sara Murray, Buddi

Male Entrepreneur of the Year

Alex Saint, Secret Escapes

Clive Jackson, FlyVictor

David Buttress, JUST EAT

Frédéric Mazzella, BlaBlaCar

Jonathan Gale, NewVoiceMedia

Kevin Cornils, GlassesDirect

Vijay Srinivasan, Cambridge Technology Partners

Corporate Development Team of the Year

Bertelsmann 

Monitise 

ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG

Shibsted Growth

St Ives

VCT of the Year

Albion Ventures

Edge Performance

Maven Capital Partners

Mobeus Equity Partners

Octopus Investments

ProVen Growth & Income VCT

YFM Equity Partners

Private Investor Network of the Year

Angel Academe

Crowdcube

Envestors

London Business Angels

Maven Investor Partners

Seedrs

Spintop

Equity Gap Fund of the Year

EC1 Capital Limited

High-Tech Gründerfonds

Midven

MMC Ventures

Notion Capital Partners

Passion Capital

Seraphim Capital

Sferiq Award for Digital Innovation in Art of the Year

Articheck

Artstack

Artsy

ArtViatic

ArtWeb .com

Paddle8

Rise Art

Saatchi Art

Sedition Art

Vastari

A big thank you to the headline sponsor of the Awards Sferiq, and also to sponsors Berenberg Bank, Orrick, PER, Bird & Bird, and JAGShaw Baker.

Hunter Ruthven

Bernard Williamson

Hunter was the Editor for GrowthBusiness.co.uk from 2012 to 2014, before moving on to Caspian Media Ltd to be Editor of Real Business.

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