The founders of the Estonian money transfer service, Transferwise, Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, won the Web Entrepreneur of the Year award, presented by the European Commission and Deloitte during the Slush startup conference in Helsinki, Finland.
The annual award is given as part of the Europioneers programme, an initiative of the European Commission that celebrates the success of web initiatives in the European Union and encourages potential entrepreneurs.
The award was presented by Jyrki Katainen, the vice-president of the European Commission, at the conference attended by the European web entrepreneur community. The winner was selected by a combination of public voting and jury input, out of hundreds of nominations.
Slush conference is the biggest startup event in the region – approximately 200 speakers, 1,700 startups, 800 investors and 15,000 attendees participated this year.
Hinrikus and Käärmann launched the peer-to-peer money transfer service Transferwise in 2011 and their firm has now grown to employ over 300 people in London, Tallinn and New York, supporting over 300 currency routes across the world, and attracting investments from Sir Richard Branson, Peter Thiel and Vikram Pandit along the way.
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Cover: Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus.
