San Francisco SmartCamp Winner Revolutionizes Farming!
I loved seeing the San Francisco Smart Camp live! First I got to see Jason and then I got to see amazing solutions on style, live streaming, farmers, and more!
For farmers, understanding farm conditions can be quite cumbersome, that's why we're excited about San Francsico's SmartCamp winner FarmHub who has just made it that much easier!
In the city of tech, winning this stage of SmartCamps is no small feat, congratulations to FarmHub for their innovative solution that makes monitoring agricultural fields easy and efficient.
How does it work? With FarmHub's weather stations and web solutions, you can connect dozens of field sensors to the cloud without the hassles of cumbersome technology. Gaining remote access to real-time conditions across the farm is as simple as turning it on.
FarmHub measures conditions like: air temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, rainfall, solar radition and UV Index, visible light intensity and soil moisture. The hardware even provides camera snapshots of crop fields.
Let's hear from the founder.
"The IBM mentorship was really top notch. Very seasoned investors who listened and looked at what we had done. The review team cut to the chase with very targeted, constructive criticism that we are immediately taking action on at FarmHub. We are excited to go to the next stage and continue to gain benefit from the IBM Smart Camp program." Louis Thiery
Congratulations again to FarmHub. Follow their story on Twitter at @farm_hub.
For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Los Angeles SmartCamp Winners Rethink Healthcare Coordination and Business Communications!
Los Angeles held their SmartCamp event September 9th at accelerator partner Amplify.La in Venice Beach and what great talent they saw!
Despite the amazing turnout and number of competitors, it was clear that this city needed to choose not one SmartCamp winner, but two.
Congratulations to Yosko and BizTexter, two innovative startups who are leading the way in taking a new approach to healthcare coordination and business communications.
Who are these game changing young companies? Yosko is a mobile care coordination platform for hospitals aimed at reducing the amount of errors during patient hand-offs, and BizTexter provides an intelligently automated text message customer service and follow-up marketing system for businesses. It is an affordable and easy to deploy app/cloud hybrid mini-CRM hosted on IBM Softlayer and integrated with Bluemix API's.
How do they work? Yosko is based on three important pillars which reflect the everyday hospital workflow: 1) seamless access to the existing hospital electronic system, 2) structured hand-off modules and 3) instant team communication. Yosko boasts a signature user interface with every functionality optimized for maximum efficiency.
BizTexter is an app which uses artificial intelligence for answering frequently asked questions and handling most of the triage questions coming from customers. The app does a great job answering questions like: Are you open? What is your address? Having any specials deals right now?
We were pleased to see the Los Angeles SmartCamp pack a full house at Amplify.La, when asked what he thought of the event, here's what one of the judges had to say, "Your Finalists are all solid. Being an accelerator, we see many, many pitches of course. The six we saw here today are all top notch, among the best we usually see."
Here's what an audience member had to say, "I had no idea IBM was doing all these great things - I though you sold hardware. I'm part developer, part business consultant and move from idea to idea very fast - I can see Bluemix as a great way for me to try my ideas quickly."
Congratulations again to Yosko and BizTexter. Follow their stories on Twitter at @YOSKO and @BIZTEXTER.
For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Singapore Startup Makes Waves in Creating Innovative Internet of Things Smart Grid Technology!
Some exciting Internet of Things news out of Singapore this week! Congratulations to gridComm for winning this week's Singapore pitch competition and moving along to the next virtual challenge stage of IBM SmartCamp 2015!
So what is GridComm all about? To put it simply, they are building energy-aware smart devices that react to conditions on the electricity grid and implementing an Internet of Things network based on the existing power grid. That's why we say they are absolutely making waves in building Smarter Cities!
To put it more specifically, gridComm aims to transform cities into smart cities by providing the power line communications semiconductors, devices and systems that enable the transformation of the electricity grid into a smart grid. By connecting utilities to their customers, gridComm's semiconductors, modules and DIN Rail PLC modems help transform meters, streetlights, homes and industrial buildings, and other appliances into energy-aware, "smart devices," which react to conditions on the grid.
The Singapore team was very excited to award gridComm the winner after hearing an excellent pitch, watching the team remote control a street light, and for their commitment to a smart nation initiative!
gridComm plans to host their startup on IBM Softlayer and use analytics from Watson and Bluemix.
Again, a warm congratulations and thank you to gridComm and to all startups who participated in this year's IBM SmartCamp Singapore!
Follow gridComm's story on Twitter at @compareandshare. For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Opening up the Sharing Economy in London! Smart Camp Winner!
Some exciting news out of London from yesterday! Congratulations to Compare and Share for winning yesterday's pitch competition in London as part of IBM SmartCamp 2015.
What is Compare and Share? Think economy sharing aggregated. Compare and Share is the comparison site for sharing. This startup was born out of a passion to have the experience of a lifetime without it costing the earth. Compare and Share has users in 195 cities and the community continues to grow fast. Options include money-saving accommodation and transportation deals, plus a sharing economy directory of over 7,600 brands.
With a dedication to opening up the sharing economy, Compare and Share demonstrated the best market and competitive awareness, penetration and a solid team to drive the business to success and award them winner of IBM's London SmartCamp.
What is Compare and Share's purpose, "We're here to open up the Sharing Economy for everyone and make sharing easy, quick and approachable. Sharing is better for our communities because it promotes smart access to goods and services, it's better for people because it connects and builds relationships, and it's better for our pockets because it helps us save and make money." (http://www.compareandshare.com/about-us/)
Thanks for participating in London's SmartCamp event Compare and Share!
Follow Compare and Share's story on Twitter at @compareandshare. For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Reimagining Optometry in Chicago! Smart Camp Winner!
Just when you thought getting an appointment with your optometrist was going to take months, a new healthcare startup comes along and completely reinvents eye-care from the comfort of your own home!
Congratulations to Opternative, the winner of this year's SmartCamp kick-off event held in Chicago on August 26th!
The Opternative team has created the first-to-market eye exam and prescription company that costs less than a traditional refractive eye exam. In just twenty-five minutes or less, you can get a quick eye exam with nothing but a smart phone and a computer. A digital eye glasses prescription is provided in less than twenty-four hours, and you can then shop for glasses or contacts anywhere.
Opternative is registered with the FDA and has undergone studies that have proved it just as accurate as an in-office eye exam.
What does Opternative have to say?
"Eye exams for glasses and contact prescriptions are just the beginning. We envision a world where technology allows patients to connect with doctors to make all aspects of vision care more convenient, accessible, and even fun!" (https://www.opternative.com/about)
Thanks for participating in Chicago's SmartCamp event Opternative!
Follow Opternative's story on Twitter at @opternative. For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
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