Geneva, November 21, 2012 – The winners of the European Entrepreneur of the Year Main Award and the Innovation Award have been announced during the the Tech Tour Cloud and Big Data Gala dinner organizing the 7th Annual "Entrepreneur of the Year Award" at the Lausanne Palace Hotel.

Klarna, the safe online payment company founded in Stockholm in 2005, has been granted with top distinction and received the 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

The CEO and founder of Enecsys, Michael J. Fister, who created the micro inverter energy harvesting device company in 2003, has been receiving the 2012 Innovation Award. 

“These awards celebrate young, emerging European technology companies that have demonstrated an ability to bring a unique and original concept to the fore,” said Sven Lingjaerde, Chairman and Founder of the European Tech Tour Association.

Klarna was founded in Stockholm in 2005 with the idea of providing a zero-friction online payment solution that would allow consumers and merchants to interact with each other as safely and simply as possible. Today, Klarna is one of Europe’s fastest growing companies. In 7 years, the company has grown to 700 employees operating in 7 European countries with over 7 million consumers. To celebrate this distinction, Aletta Stas, COO of Frédérique Constant offered a beautiful Frédérique Constant Heart Beat Manufacture FC-938MC4H6 to Mr Robert Hadzetovic, representant of Mr Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and Co-Founder of Klarna.

Enecsys Limited is the premier supplier of grid-connected micro inverters and monitoring systems. The micro inverter converts and controls DC power generated by each solar module in the PV array into AC power for homes and businesses. The advantages of the Enecsys micro inverter system include: maximized energy harvest, improved safety for installers and users and a lifetime matching that of the solar modules.

Mr Mike Fister, CEO of Enecsys did receive from Peter Stas, CEO of Frédérique Constant, a Frédérique Constant Heart Beat Manufacture FC-935MC4H6 as award.

About Frédérique Constant

Founded in 1988 by entrepreneurs Aletta and Peter Stas and driven by passion, Frédérique Constant has grown into one of the larger Swiss watch manufacturers. Production reaches over 120'000 watches, sold in over 2'700 points of sale in 100+ countries around the globe. Frederique Constant positions itself in the Accessible Luxury segment, with most of its watches selling at CHF 1'000-5'000 retail. The company is expected to continue its annual 25% growth, doubling in size every three years. Frédérique Constant was started by entrepreneurs and its employees are encouraged to behave as entrepreneurs, managing their responsibility area as their own business. The company is happy and proud to be a global partner of the Tech Tour. In addition to this sponsorship, Frédérique Constantalso actively stimulates and promotes various social entrepreneurs.

About European Tech Tour

European Tech Tour Association (ETT) was founded in Geneva in 1998 in response to the growing interest in emerging technology companies in various European regions. ETT is an independent, not-for-profit organization composed of key contributors to the high-technology industry. ETT recognizes that continued prosperity in Europe lies in its ability transform today's innovative projects into tomorrow's global technology leaders (www.techtour.com).ETT’s goal is to promote European entrepreneurship and provide a platform for entrepreneurs and investors to meet, ideally leading to funding or facilitation of technology companies looking to expand internationally. ETT looks to identify unique and innovative projects that have the potential to impact the European technology landscape. It focuses on introducing selected companies to a unique circle of top-ranking global investors, corporations and advisors. ETT aims to bring more transparency to Europe's regional and market segments whilst building stronger relationships between regional and international players.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Yasmina Pedrini via pedrini@frederique-constant.com