After 12 months, Jungle Bells has officially closed its first pitching season during a colourful closing ceremony at Euronext Brussels.
As a reminder, Jungle Bells is a programme initiated by Spreds (with Euronext as main partner) aimed at facilitating the fundraising of Belgian companies and avoiding blockages between the different rounds by covering the entire financing chain: from the Jungle of start-ups (Jungle) to the IPO bell ceremony (Bell). Other sponsors of the programme are the SFPI, Co.Station co-working space, PwC Legal, the M&A boutique ONEtoONE Corporate Finance and the Fintech B-Hive accelerator.
Charles-Albert de Radzitzky, CEO of Spreds, does not hide his enthusiasm: "25 entrepreneurs came to present their project during the five pitching sessions that took place throughout the year. 15 of them have finalised their fundraising, 6 campaigns are in the process of being finalised while 4 others unfortunately did not have the chance to attract enough investment".
The closing ceremony was organised around the famous Bell Ceremony of Euronext Brussels where some of the season's entrepreneurs were rewarded:
Hydrobox, which has developed a standardised power plant that solves many of the challenges of hydroelectric projects, received the award for the most innovative start-up.
FullUp, which created an application that allows you to manage your tanks and easily know their level wherever you are, was awarded the prize for the fastest campaign (12 days between the launch on the platform and the closing at the notary's office).
NFPC, the spin-off the Normaphar, which has developed a technology that, added to a food, allows to lower and control cholesterol, received the award for best business plan.
Herculean was this season's big winner. The organiser of sports events and competitions centred around teambuilding was identified by Spreds and Euronext Brussels as a candiat at the IPO and has integrated the Euronext Tech Share programme.
"Together, the companies that came to present throughout the year managed to raise more than 3 million euros via the platform and through direct investors. 3 million via the platform and direct investors," says Alex Houtart, programme director. "Our goal was to gather around 300 to 400 investors around these events and in the end we surpassed our expectations with around 500 registrants over 6 sessions."
As for the 2020 season of Jungle Bells, it will take place on February 11th with 8 top scale-ups. ABN Amro Private Banking has also been added to the list of sponsors.
