SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Please replace the release from April 24 with the following corrected version due to multiple revisions.
The corrected release reads:
30 STARTUPS FROM 15 COUNTRIES HAVE QUALIFIED TO SILICON VALLEY’S OWN VERSION OF THE WORD CUP!
Launch: Silicon Valley 2014 – The World Cup Tech Challenge, May 20, 2014
SVForum today announced the names of the 30 qualified startups selected to compete in this year’s Launch: Silicon Valley, the premier launch platform for tech startups on the rise. This year, Launch: Silicon Valley is expanding its global reach with a special edition: The World Cup Tech Challenge. Modeled after the famous global soccer tournament, countries from around the world applied to qualify for six spots in each of five different Tech Groups: Digital Media-Mobile, Enterprise Software, EdTech, Next Generation Technology, and HealthTech.
"SVForum is proud to continue a great tradition with a dynamic new twist, connecting entrepreneurs and those who can help them realize their goals," said CEO Adiba Barney. "With this year’s special edition of Launch: Silicon Valley, we are happy and proud to celebrate startups from all over the world!"
For the last eight years, SVForum's Launch: Silicon Valley, hosted and co-sponsored by Microsoft, has given startups from Silicon Valley and around the world a chance to meet, present to, and get feedback from some of the most renowned VCs, angels, corporate venture firms, potential partners and customers. This year, the 30 qualified startups come from 16 diverse countries, ranging from Kazakhstan to Finland to Thailand. (The full list is included below.)
"Microsoft is proud to be hosting and sponsoring Launch: Silicon Valley," said Matt Thompson, General Manager of Developer and Platform Evangelism at Microsoft. "Launch is a great event for startups, and the 'World Cup Tech Challenge' theme adds an exciting new dimension."
How it works: Venue, voting, and agenda
The event takes place at Microsoft’s Campus in Mountain View, California, and runs from 8 a.m. until 5.30 p.m. For more details and info, check out the full agenda here.
The qualifying startups will showcase their product in the World Cup Tech Hall, and pitch on stage to a distinguished panel of investors and other tech industry luminaries. Winners will be selected in each Group, as well as one overall winner, based on both online votes and points from judges. The winning startups will receive prizes provided by the group and event sponsors, as well as one-on-one meetings with top VCs and corporate executives.
In keeping with the international theme, each startup will also be able to represent their country in style—country jerseys will be made for participating companies and attendees, and flags will be displayed; national anthems will be played as each country is introduced. The Launch audience will also be encouraged to participate in the process: in addition to voting for their favorite startups on each Group page, the audience can root for both companies and countries via dedicated hashtags. To see the companies and vote, please go here.
Don’t forget to tweet about the event! Please include @SVForum #WorldCupTech and the country hashtag provided after each company info (#LSVCountry).
Launch: Silicon Valley - The World Cup Tech Challenge is sponsored by Microsoft, Cooley LLP, SAP, and IBM.
Panelist-Judges:
Some of the panelists will include Dave Munichiello of Google Ventures, Marlon Nichols of Intel Capital, Michael Pachos of Samsung Ventures, Bill Reichert of Garage Technology Ventures, Mohanjit Jolly of Draper Fischer Jurvetson, John McIntyre of Citrix Startup Accelerator, Fadi Bishara of Blackbox, James Maiocco of Microsoft Ventures, Busy Burr of Citi Ventures, and many more.
About Launch
In its 9th year, Launch: Silicon Valley is firmly established as the premier product launch platform for Technology startups. The event, organized by Silicon Valley not-for-profit SVForum, provides the next generation of emerging technology companies with the opportunity to pitch their products to, and network with, an audience of Silicon Valley’s top VCs, Angels, corporate business development executives, prospective customers and partners, bloggers and media.
About SVForum
For over thirty years, SVForum has been the leading not-for-profit organization in the Bay Area, providing an unbiased source of information and insight to the technology community. Through the efforts of its dedicated staff and volunteers, SVForum’s wealth of programs create networks and relationships, and provide education and access to resources both in person and digitally to a global audience. The organization reaches over 20,000 of the most important thought leaders, VCs, innovators and CEOs in technology. Its partners include global leaders IBM, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and SAP, as well as leading venture capital firms and service providers.
For further information, visit the SVForum website at www.svforum.org.
The 30 Startups competing in the World Cup Tech Challenge
Please contact Jeff Lettes if you want the contact info for any of the startup founders.
DIGITAL MEDIA-MOBILE GROUP
Plotagon is a new social storytelling app focused on being fast, easy and fun to use. Using Plotagon’s unique user interface makes it easy to tell and share your story by creating a 3D animated video ready for the world to see. #LSVSweden
Representing: Sweden
Based in: Sweden
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Sublime Skinz has developed a unique technology that enables the easy industrialization of rich media and interactive advertising formats. The Network (+1500 websites worldwide) is available for Media Sales and RTB sales through Mediamath, Appnexus, DBM, and Turn. #LSVFrance
Representing: France
Based in: US - France – UK
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AppGyver makes it possible for anyone to build high-quality mobile applications in an easy-to-use visual app builder. Apps can connect to any APIs and cloud services, and can be released to iOS and Android app stores. #LSVFinland
Representing: Finland
Based in: US - Finland
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FoneSense is aiming to become the world’s largest audio billboard network. Brands can place their advertising message on their target consumer’s smartphones targeting by age, gender, location, mobile network & smartphone usage. #LSVIreland
Representing: Ireland
Based in: Ireland
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Pantomime™ turns any mobile device into a 3D paddle that lets users reach into physically realistic, shared augmented reality and VR worlds. Any computer, mobile device or game console can instantly join the scene. Our initial focus: the $13B mobile game market.
Representing: US
Based in: US
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TagTagCity combines an augmented sightseeing of cities, shops, restaurants and other places of interest for consumers with a pre-created mobile website for B2B clients. This allows retailers and SMEs to attract the right audience to their physical locations at a very low cost. #LSVBelgium
Representing: Belgium
Based in: Belgium
ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE GROUP
Ohanae delivers the mobile first, cloud first privacy grail through a consistent application from desktop to mobile devices running Android, iOS, MacOS, and Windows that generates unique strong passwords, encryption for major cloud services and secure file sharing. #LSVUSA
Representing: US
Based in: US
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Cupenya provides operational insights solutions for individuals, teams and businesses. Through its “Kioo” product line, Cupenya helps enterprise businesses monitor and analyze personal, team and workflow performance. With Kioo businesses stay on top of their daily performance. #LSVNetherlands
Representing: Netherlands
Based in: Netherlands
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RelationDesk has developed a platform for managing customer conversations and relationships in social media. #LSVSweden
Representing: Sweden
Based in: Sweden
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Contract Live is a SaaS contract management platform allowing companies to seamlessly manage all their contracts throughout all stages (creation, negotiation, signature and management) in one safe place. #LSVFrance
Representing: France
Based in: France
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SUMMICS is a content analytic and moderations software for the world’s largest forums and mega-communities. Prosumer companies don't need social tools crawling all of the web. They need a precise content recognition tool for their own mega-communities - not Twitter or FB. #LSVGermany
Representing: Germany
Based in: Germany
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FormVerse is a robust platform for building workflow applications inside of email. We take a XML form, put it inside of the email message, route it throughout the organization for approvals, then pull the data from the form and integrate with other apps. #LSVCanada
Representing: Canada
Based in: Canada
EDTECH GROUP
Taamkru is looking to disrupt the preschool education industry by providing a learning platform that makes it more fun for the children to learn. The children’s scores and improvement can be tracked by the parents and teachers, and they can easily identify where improvement is needed. #LSVThailand
Representing: Thailand
Based in: Thailand
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Actively Learn is a digital reading platform that empowers educators to transform reading and writing so students understand more, think critically, and build lasting skills. #LSVUSA
Representing: US
Based in: US
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Mustard Seed is a management system developed to be the operating system for schools. It provides a platform to encompass modern technology from e-learning tools, online marketing, mobile device sales, and recruitment and sponsorship opportunities for students and teachers.
Representing: South Africa
Based in: South Africa
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eKool has created an online communication tool for schools, district administrators, parents and students. A solution that has been proved, as it today covers 95% of schools in Estonia.
Representing: Estonia
Based in: Estonia
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Speecheo creates an information channel within a presentation between speakers and their audience. Attendees highlight slides, moments that matters to them, and tweets synchronized with their notes. Speecheo analyzes that data to provide a powerful audience reporting. #LSVFrance
Representing: France
Based in: France
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BloomBoard is an online growth development platform that allows schools and districts to collect and analyze educator effectiveness, and educators can access a rich marketplace of professional development resources to support growth. #LSVUSA
Representing: US
Based in: US
HEALTHTECH GROUP
VoiceItt has a revolutionary voice technology application that allows people with severe motor, speech, and language disorders to use their own voice to express themselves. Their product TalkItt has the ability to effectively improve the quality of life of millions of people. #LSVIsrael
Representing: Israel
Based in: Israel
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Diagnotes is a mobile and web-based software system that gives medical groups the tools to improve physician communication with patients, care teams and office staff, through automated routing of calls/texts, clinical data delivery and encounter documentation. #LSVUSA
Representing: US
Based in: US
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Life.beats is mobile application and web-service that helps people with chronic diseases to improve clinical outcomes through increasing medication adherence. It reminds patients to take prescribed drugs, refill them in time, and connects patients with local pharmacies. #LSVKazakhstan
Representing: Kazakhstan
Based in: Ukraine
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Isentio has created a SaaS tool that enables DNA technology for clinical diagnostics. It features 90% faster and more accurate bacteria identification, saving lives and reducing healthcare costs. With speedy analysis and correct data, doctors can give patients a correct treatment and medication the first day. #LSVNorway
Representing: Norway
Based in: US
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STEMP is an intelligent body thermometer system that will change the way we think about, interact with, and benefit from thermometers. We’ve combined cutting-edge but proven technologies (micro-sensors, BluetoothLE) with an intuitive smartphone app that makes it easy and fun
Representing: US
Based in: US
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TruTrainer is an app for improving personal fitness that provides each user with a real personal trainer to create quality customized fitness guidance for a user via their mobile device. It also keeps track of user progress so that personal trainers can review the data and keep their clients on track. #LSVIsrael
Representing: Israel
Based in: Israel
NEXT GEN TECHNOLOGY GROUP
Sedicii proves a person knows a piece of data (e.g. password, credit card details, SSN) to another party without either party exposing any of the underlying information. It can be used in authentication systems, payments systems and ID verification systems.
Representing: Ireland
Based in: Ireland
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Shortcut Labs creates one-button remote controls to your phone in the size of coins - they call them Shortcut Buttons. They can control practically anything that your phone can do, so you only need to use your imagination! What have you always wanted a button for? #LSVSweden
Representing: Sweden
Based in: US - Sweden
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Vantage Analytics have created a must-have tool for eCommerce sites. Transforming data into insights and actions, they provide businesses with key metrics and enable immediate action with tools for email, social media and leading business apps. Once deployed, they monitor & optimize campaigns in real time. #LSVCanada
Representing: Canada
Based in: Canada
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Liquidity manufactures revolutionary water purification cartridges, based on breakthrough membrane technology, to solve the world's potable water needs. Pour any non-salt water through our cartridge and drink it safely. It's that simple. No chemicals, no power nor pressure. #LSVUSA
Representing: US
Based in: US
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Stremor has developed Plexi - a mobile conversational search product that's both Siri and Wolfram Alpha full stack and doesn't need voice commands. Plexi NLP platform enables software to interact with text, unstructured data, and voice input to extract, interpret and deliver information. #LSVUSA
Representing: US
Based in: US
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FilmMe Group has created your personal cameraman - a video recording system that films its target automatically following and zooming. It consists of My Personal Cameraman, location system and My Personal Wristband and together they form an automatic video recording service for sports and performances. #LSVFinland
Representing: Finland
Based in: Finland
