Cognicor Technologies, a Spanish start-up offering an automated complaint resolution service, is the winner of Europe’s “Tech All Stars” prize, an EU-wide competition to find the best web start-up, awarded by European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes. Cognicor will showcase its company at the Digital Agenda Assembly today in Brussels.

Cognicor, whose clients include the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica, is a start-up from the Wayra accelerator in Spain. CogniCor provides an automated complaint resolution service for service sector industries such as telecoms, aviation, financial and insurance to resolve claims faster and cheaper.

Cognicor was selected from more than 257 entries from all over the EU. This list was narrowed down to 12 finalists from Denmark, France, Ireland, Latvia, Spain and the UK. Start-ups developed innovative ideas including: a phone app allowing users to activate and operate mobile devices by only using facial recognition software; a platform where users can obtain partial refunds on plane tickets and where airlines can gain additional seats to sell and a system allowing people with a visual disability or dyslexia to use any computer in order to view a website in a way that suits them

To take part in the competition, web start-ups had to be registered in the EU, be less than 3 years old as well as have raised less than a million euros in external capital.

“Tech All Stars” was organised by the European Commission to provide visibility to the best European web start-ups to help them connect with investors, top executives, mentors, potential partners and venture capitalists. A 3-day “Tech All Stars” event was held as part of the Founders Forum London, where the world’s top investors and entrepreneurs come to network and see new start-ups

Supporting Europe’s best web entrepreneurs to launch and grow sustainable businesses is a key commitment of the Digital Agenda for Europe (general DAE information available at IP/10/581, MEMO/10/199 and MEMO/10/200).By the end of 2012, the Commission will propose a strategy to strengthen the environment for web entrepreneurs in Europe. It will be built around positive entrepreneurial culture reinforcement, funding and incentives schemes, retaining talent and support to understand the web entrepreneurs’ ecosystem in Europe.

A panel of judges reviewed 257 applications made by incubators, accelerators, and web camps across the EU and selected the following 12 finalists: Senseye, Conferize, Roozz (from Denmark), Scrazzl (from Ireland), Teleportd (from France), Cobook, Infogr.am (from Latvia), Cognicor, Kantox, ChangeyourFlight (from Spain) and Fractal, Recite me (from the UK).

The Tech All Stars event began on 20th June 20th 2012 at LeWeb London – Europe’s largest web conference -, where Tech All Stars’ pitches sessions were held. Cognicor also receives a commemorative diploma from Markku Markkula of the Committee of the Regions at the Digital Agenda Assembly in Brussels.

European Commission activities to support web entrepreneurs began in September 2010. Their aim is to convene meetings and networks of entrepreneurs and listen to their needs. Focus is on creating more favourable environments for web entrepreneurs by raising awareness and giving credit to web entrepreneurs, networking, access to talent and content (open data) and identifying and removing regulatory and administrative burdens. Besides Tech All Stars, other European Commission concrete actions include: a challenge at www.openideo.com , a professional crowd-source platform, in order to crowd-source ideas on how to support web entrepreneurs to grow sustainable business in Europe and the Web Entrepreneurs Partnership, an online platform where young start-ups will get access to resources, connections and expertise.