Tornado Insider Releases Fourth Annual Tornado100 List

Today at the Tornado Insider/World Financial Symposiums T100 Leadership Forum in London, Tornado Insider announced its fourth annual Tornado100 list. The 2004 Tornado100 list is a critical selection of the 100 best-performing and innovative high-tech private companies of Europe and Israel in the past year.

Amsterdam & London (PRWEB) January 27, 2005 -- Today at the Tornado Insider/World Financial Symposiums T100 Leadership Forum in London, Tornado Insider announced its fourth annual Tornado100 list. The 2004 Tornado100 list is a critical selection of the 100 best-performing and innovative high-tech private companies of Europe and Israel in the past year.

This years Tornado100 was particularly tough to compile," says Jerome Mol, founder and CEO of Tornado Insider. The level of innovation and entrepreneurial excellence in Europe has increased big time in the past couple of years. The 100 winners truly managed to surprise us with outstanding product offerings, superior customer wins and impressive funding rounds. Investors have every reason to follow these promising go-getters closely as they clearly show that the early-stage tech market is back stronger than ever before."

Identifying the 100 finest from a list of thousands of quality candidates is a task undertaken by Tornado Insiders research and editorial departments, in conjunction with industry insiders, high-tech analysts as well as regional specialists. Eligible for the 2004 Tornado100 list were companies in Europe and Israel founded after 1998 and involved in all technology areas including the ICT, life sciences and cleantech sectors.

The selection of the 2004 Tornado100 Winners from thousands of candidates was judged according to the following criteria:

·Delivering an innovation that shows the promise to set new standards

·Creating a major new audience

·Supplying a key piece of the ICT infrastructure

·Commanding a significant customer base

·Having the potential to become a global brand or standard

·Influencing a major market

·Receiving a significant amount of funding

·Having a strong valuation for a lucrative exit

·Having a management with previous successful exit experience

The companies Tornado Insider selected are Europes technology stars," said Niels Valkering, Tornado Insiders Head of Research. Combining internal analysis with advice from industry specialists, we identified the elite of Europes high-tech entrepreneurial vanguard, appreciating excellence both in innovative, commercial and financial performance. Watch these companies in 2005, as the technology they are commercializing today will change tomorrows trends."

The T100 Leadership Forum was sponsored by Brown Rudnick, Corum Group, Deutsche Bank, KPMG and Spencer Stuart. The Tornado100 is a must attend event as it brings a large number of the highest quality, high-growth European companies together," said Thierry Monjauze, VP Technology Investment Banking, Deutsche Bank AG.

Sarah Mulhern from Spencer Stuart's European Technology, Communications & Media Practice, added "Spencer Stuart is pleased to support the Tornado100, an event that helps equip executives with tools to support their decision-making in a challenging and rapidly changing market; essential for effective leadership in todays evolving economy."

The technology industry as a whole frequently spearheads the development of innovative design and leading-edge ideas. KPMG is proud to work alongside companies in both the electronics and software sectors, to help them achieve their vision in this fast moving industry. The T100 Leadership Forum is an opportunity to celebrate some of these success stories," said Crispin OBrien, KPMGs UK Head of Technology.

A jury including representatives from the sponsors faced the challenge of selecting three award winners from the 2004 Tornado100 list in the categories: Winning Finance", Winning Technology", and Overall Winner". Bruce Milne, CEO of the Corum Group stated, What an amazing group of companies nominated... it was nearly impossible to pick the winner. Each one is a global leader in their respective field and an example of excellence for all of us in an age when good role models are needed."

The three award winners were announced during the network drinks at the T100 Leadership Forum. The award for Winning Finance" went to IN-FUSIO. Winning Technology" was presented to Diatos. The jury named Skype Technologies the Overall Winner" of the 2004 Tornado100. Gerald Parascandolo, Partner at Brown Rudnick commented, Skype Technologies not only has good technology that it has successfully tailored to meet the needs of its consumer market, but it has also appreciated the benefit of having investors like Index Ventures, which is well positioned to help bring the company to the next level."

The full 2004 Tornado100 list can be found on the website of Tornado Insider (www.tornado-insider.com), and includes profiles of all 100 most promising and innovative emerging companies in the European IT and biotech sectors.

Tornado100

1-2-3.tv (DE); 4-Antibody (CH); Ablynx (BE); Addex (CH); Alchimer (FR); ALSI (NL); AM-BEO (IE) - 2,3; Anadigm (UK) - 3; Apertio (UK); Appear Networks (SE); AppSense (UK); Arakis (UK); Ardana Bioscience (UK); Astaro (DE) - 3; Astex Technology (UK) - 2,3; Aventeon (DE); Bioxell (IT) - 2; BitBand (IS); BridgeCo (CH) - 3; Cambridge Broadband (UK) - 2,3; CareX (FR); CIRPACK (FR); CRF (FI) - 2,3; CropDesign (BE); DeepStream Technologies (UK); Diatos (FR); Dibcom (FR); Digital Bridges (UK) - 1,2,3; Domantis (UK); Elixent (UK); Empower Interactive (UK); End2End (DK) - 2; Esmertec (CH) - 3; Evotec Neurosciences (DE); Faust Pharmaceuticals (FR); Fluency Voice Technology (UK); Frontier Silicon (UK); Garderos (DE) - 3; GridXpert (FR); Hymite (DK); Icera Semiconductor (UK) - 3; IN-FUSIO (FR); Ingate (SE); Innovative Silicon (CH); Inpharmatica (UK) - 3; Jaluna (FR) - 3; Kalido (UK) - 2; Lenslet (IS); Lumentis (SE); MarketXS (NL); mCentric (ES); Meridea (FI); Mesophotonics (UK); Millimed (SE); Mobilaris (SE) - 3; Mobile Tornado (IS); Napatech (DK); NaWoTec (DE) - 3; NetCentrex (FR) - 1; Neuro3d (FR); Nexagent (UK) - 3; Novexel (FR); Ocean Power Delivery (UK); OnRelay (UK) - 3; PacketFront (SE) - 3; Pemeas (DE); picoChip (UK) - 3; PortWise (SE); PowderMed (UK); Printar (IS); ProStrakan Group (UK); Psytechnics (UK); RxT (NO); SensorDynamics (AT); Silicon Hive (NL); Skype Technologies (LU); Smart Fuel Cell (DE) - 3; Smartner (FI) - 3; SOISIC (FR); Solexa (UK) - 3; Speedel (CH); Splashpower (UK); Starhome (CH); Stepmind (FR); SurfKitchen (UK); Symbian (UK) - 1,3; Symphogen (DK); TeraView (UK); Tideway (UK); TransChip (IS) - 3; Transmode Systems (SE); UbiNetics (UK) - 1,2; Unipier (IS); Valista (IE) - 2,3; VegaStream (UK); VoiceObjects (DE); Weblicon (DE); Wisair (IS); Xignal Technologies (DE); Xsil (IE) -- 3

'3 -- 2003 Tornado100 winner; '2 -- 2002 Tornado100 winner; '1 -- 2001 Tornado100 winner

Tornado Insider would like to acknowledge the seven companies that are named in the Tornado100 for the third time: AM-BEO, Astex, Cambridge Broadband, CRF, Symbian, UbiNetics and Valista. We would like to extend special congratulations to Digital Bridges, which is the only company making the list for four consecutive years. In appreciation of this, Tornado Insider introduced the 'Top Class award, which was presented to Digital Bridges at the T100 Leadership Forum.

About Tornado Insider

Founded in 1999, Tornado Insider is the only true pan-European technology media company serving the technology industry, providing entrepreneurs, investors, service providers and other participants with a single-source view of high-tech Europe featuring primary research, editorial coverage, startup awards and events. Core to all of Tornado Insider's activities is the most extensive database available - focused on European private technology companies, their funding deals and key decision makers. Through its products and services Tornado Insider offers valuable insight into the technology trends in Europe, its investment climate, as well as qualified sales leads, competitive intelligence, and support for due diligence activities.

www.tornado-insider.com

About Tornado100

Since its inception in 2001, the annual Tornado100 list has become the premier award for innovative, high-tech startups across Europe and Israel. Tornado100 winners grab a lot of attention of the venture capital community, with many of the Tornado100 companies raising substantial funding since being selected as a Tornado100 winner. Each year the list is assembled by Tornado Insider's research department in conjunction with industry specialists, selecting the best performing and innovative private high-tech companies.

www.tornado-insider.com/tornado100

For additional information please contact:

Tornado Insider:

Ruud Kaitjily

Tel:    +31 20 462 1942

Fax:    +31 20 462 1961

rkaitjily@tornado-insider.com

2005 Tornado Insider all rights reserved. Tornado Insider is a trademark used under license by TI Research Group. All other logos, brand names and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.

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