On the occasion of ICT Spring Europe 2016, one of the most influential conferences on the European agenda, taking place on 10 & 11 May at the European Convention Center of Luxembourg-Kirchberg, 1,500 professionals attended the Networking Cocktail and over 600 of them took part in the European ICT Awards Dinner, on the first evening of the convention.

The winners of the European ICT Awards were announced during the Dinner, in the presence of Luxembourg's Minister for Finances, Pierre Gramegna. These awards aim at rewarding the best practices in the ICT field. 4 awards were attributed by the jury:

- European CIO of the Year: Ann Hellenius, CIO of the City of Stockholm

- Future FinTech Star: Particeep helps worldwide firms, banks and asset management companies to operate their digital transition quickly, with agility and at a lower cost, while maintaining their existing information system. Particeep is the first French SaaS solution available in white label that dematerialises the management of funding operations online. With Particeep's customisable and modular technology, any organisation can now create their own financial product distribution platform or crowdfunding platform.

- European startup of the Year: FundRecs was founded in 2013 in Dublin, Ireland, when the company founders were approached by a large bank to develop a new reconciliation platform for its Fund Administration unit. With over 25 years operational and technology experience between them, the team are building a platform to transform how data is managed, processed and leveraged by the Funds Industry: an efficient, powerful and cost effective reconciliation software.

- European FinTech of the Year: NUMBER26 is Europe’s first mobile bank built for the digital age. Launched in 2015, it is one of Germany’s most successful Fintech startups, having raised over €12 million from investors such as Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Earlybird Ventures and Axel Springer Plug & Play. Founded in early 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal, NUMBER26 has acquired more than 160.000 customers in just 13 months and processes more than one million transactions per month. NUMBER26 currently employs a team of 140 people in Berlin working towards defining what banking should be.