2019 06 19

Growing Businesses of Kaunas awarded at K.A.V.A. 2019 ceremony

On June 6^th, top-level executives of Kaunas business community gathered for the IQ business forum as well as Kaunas Growing Business Awards (K.A.V.A.) 2019. During a prestigious and glamorous ceremony various companies were awarded for their significant contribution to Kaunas growing business ecosystem – from early-phase start-ups, to long-established industry whales.

The signs of city growth

‘The city is changing and it’s evident once you observe all newly built offices or numerous construction sites’ – says Visvaldas Matijošaitis, the Mayor of Kaunas City. During his opening speech the Mayor emphasised the importance of presence of companies with long-lasting business traditions. ‘I am happy to see so many respectable businessmen in the audience, who shall set an example for any newly-start businesses. The Mayor thanked all participants of the event for their contribution to the current growth of Kaunas.

More than 80 different companies submitted 109 applications for 11 categories of awards. Ten winners were selected by a committee of experts from various local and national business associations. A high number of experts allowed for selecting the best application in terms of the most rapid expansion, innovations, corporate social responsibility, hospitality or real estate development.

The main organizers of the event happening for the second-consecutive year – Kaunas IN – stresses the importance of increasing participation of Kaunas businesses: the number of applications has more than doubled compared to 2018 (109 and 46 applications respectively).

‘We can say that both, the event itself and the Kaunas business community are growing – the committee had a tough task to evaluate every application. Though there is a sole winner in each of the categories, most of the applications deserve an honourable mention. It is great to meet all these businesses in one place and we are sure that these kinds of events will help to gather Kaunas businessmen to work for common goals of our city.’– says Tadas Stankevičius, the head of business division at Kaunas IN.

The formula for success

The winner in the ‘Expansion Abroad’ category – JLC ‘Imlitex Holdings’ for constant and stable growth of export revenues in more than 50 foreign markets.

The winner in the ‘Expansion in Kaunas’ category – Teltonika, JLC for more than twice-fold growth in revenues since 2016, rapid increase in the number of employees and exceptionally high operational efficiency.

The winner in the ‘Startup of Kaunas’ category – Identifikaciniai projektai, JLC for creating unique and market-ready ID verification tool based on artificial intelligence iDenfy, which prevents fraudulent activities that require personal identity verification.

The winner in the ‘Responsible Business’ category – Hegelmann Transporte, JLC. For implementing corporate social responsibility solutions affecting the environment and people alike. These initiatives not only help to diminish the negative impact for the environment but also help to educate the employees on the importance of such principles.

The winner in the ‘Created in Kaunas’ category – No Magic Europe, JLC for more than 20 years of experience in providing top-notch quality business solutions for modelling software and system engineering. Part of the success of Mars exploration Rover Curiosity, Renault-Nissan, JP Morgan, BMW, Siemens, Boeing, Airbus are attributed to using solutions provided by No Magic.

The winner in the ‘Innovation 2019’ category – Axioma Metering, JLC for creating the smallest smart ultra-sound water metering system Qalcosonic W1, which ensures efficient water metering at households and businesses alike by saving on water consumption and therefore overall costs.

The winner in the ‘Hospitality in Kaunas’ category – Monte Pacis, LTD for the highest-class, original and modern services provided for its guests. The Pažaislis Monastery was built in the 17^th century and still operational today as a location generating social and education projects that highly contribute to the visibility and awareness of Kaunas.

The winner in the ‘Kaunas Real Estate Developer’ category – YIT Lietuva, LTD for developing an urban project Piliamiestis that brought the right bank of the river Neris back to life. Currently the district is seeing a number of public and private investments which will create a new lively and vibrant point of attraction in the city.

The winner in the ‘Foreign Investor (Services)’ category – Festo, LTD for long traditions in Kaunas, high contributions to making Kaunas the technological centre and plans of sustainable expansion.

The winner in the ‘Foreign Investor (Manufacturing)’ category – Littelfuse LT, LTD for making engineering more popular, growing high-level specialists, sustainable growth both, in terms of its number of employees, investments and plans for further expansion in Kaunas.

The winner of the ‘Kaunas is proud of..’ category, which was the only category where the winner was elected by the public, is Kaunas Coding School, for destroying negative stereotypes associated with programming and IT, increasing the general level of IT competences in the society, enabling specialists of other qualifications to create new products or developing already existing ones.

The main goal of the event, which happened for a second consecutive year and is already becoming a wonderful annual tradition, is to pay attention to the fastest growing businesses of Kaunas and to acknowledge the general economic environment in the city. Various institutions joined the efforts of Kaunas IN and Kaunas City Municipality to organize the event – general partners – Kaunas Chamber of Commerce, IQ magazine; partners – Invest Lithuania, Kaunas Free Trade Zone, Kaunas Science and Technology Park, KTU Start-Up Space, Lithuanian Responsible Business Association, Lithuanian Real Estate Development Association, BNI, Enterprise Lithuania and Žalgiris Business Club.

Unique award statues were created by Resin Timber, premises of the ceremony were decorated by Kauno želdiniai.