The World Economic Forum (WEF) has recognised two Luxembourg-based companies as among the world's 30 most promising Technology Pioneers 2016.
The awards were announced at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions which took place on Monday 27 June 2016 in Tianjin, China. The selected companies gain access to an influential and global business and political network and could go on to participate in the WEF Annual Meeting 2017 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.
Three years after being founded by Bogdan Serban, APATEQ has been selected by a professional jury from among hundreds of candidates as one of the 30 chosen companies. APATEQ, which engineers and manufacturers high-efficinecy wastewater treatment systems based on process technologies, featured among companies selected for their potential to significantly impact business and society through innovative technologies and thereby advance the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
"We welcome APATEQ in this group of extraordinary pioneers," said Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the WEF. "APATEQ is among those companies that help shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another. Through the platform of the World Economic Forum, it will be able to scale and share its technology and achieve a larger impact."
"Being a Technology Pioneer selected by the prestigious World Economic Forum is a great honour for us," commented APATEQ co-founder and CEO, Bogdan Serban. "It is a confirmation that our technologies are among the most unique and pioneering in the world, excel by very competitive costs and can contribute to the protection of our most precious natural resource: fresh water."
Bitcoin wallet and transaction data services provider Blockchain was the second company headquartered in Luxembourg to be awarded as WEF Technology Pioneer by a selection committee of 68 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. It was also started in 2013 and aims to provide a secure and convenient way to store and transact digital value across the globe and without costly intermediaries.
"At Blockchain, we're on a mission to build an open, fair and accessible financial future, one piece of software at a time," explained Blockchain CEO, Peter Smith. "That means building software that uses a public blockchain that allows people to transact directly in a peer-to-peer way."
As was the case in previous years, American-based entrepreneurs continued to dominate the list of Technology Pioneers in 2016, providing 22 out of 30 recipients. Luxembourg and France each contributed two, whilst other selected pioneers came from Canada, Israel, Sweden and the UK.
Image by WEF
