Bas Beerens, co-founder of WeTransfer, won the LOEY Award 2016 for best entrepreneur in the Dutch online industry. Next to that Hans Ober from Ticketswap won the first LOEY Talent Award.
Entrepreneurs from within the industry could nominate their colleagues. The jury eventually chose the winner – it consisted of Daniel Ropers (bol.com), Bernhard van Oranje (Levi9), Joost Romeijn (Sundio Group) and Steven Schuurman (founders Elastic, and winner of the LOEY Award 2015).
In 1997 Beerens (right on the photo) started marketing agency Oy Communications. To save on the delivery costs, he developed a tool to send large video files to clients. In 2009 he wanted to use that tech in a much broader sense, so he and co-founder ‘Nalden’ created WeTransfer. In 2015 the company got a 25 million dollar investment.
Earlier this year Beerens also launched WeMarket, an online marketplace for professional buyers and sellers. He also was named Entrepeneur of the World by the United Nations because of his entrepreneurial qualities and the worldwide impact of WeTransfer.
Daniel Ropers: “Bas made WeTransfer a worldwide success – thanks to his unruly sense of entrepreneurship. That shows a lot of vision and guts.”
LOEY Talent Award
Hans Ober won the first ever Talent Award. He is the co-founder of Ticketswap – an easy and safe way to sell tickets and buy second-hand ones. With Ticketswap, Ober managed to disrupt the ticket industry in a very short time. The founder gives its employees a lot of freedom and space for their own entrepreneurial projects.
Image: LOEY Awards