The Top 10 Startups Compete - IBM Smart Camp Semi-Finals at LAUNCH!
I am so excited to have our top 10 from IBM SmartCamp 2015.
We've selected our ten semi-finalists who will be headed to the LAUNCH Scale event next month in San Francisco where the most influential leaders in technology will teach founders how to scale their businesses.
Last year’s event featured tactical talks from Reddit, Twitter, Indiegogo, LinkedIn, Zillow, Yelp, and many more. LAUNCH Scale 2015 is expected to see two times the attendance and content. Thank you to all of the talented startups who competed worldwide, and congratulations to the below companies who will move on to the next phase of SmartCamp 2015.
1. Singapore - gridComm: gridComm provides power line communications semiconductors, devices and systems to transform the electricity grid into a smart grid. (http://www.gridcomm-plc.com/ | Twitter: https://twitter.com/gridcomm).
2. Amsterdam - BitSaver: BitSaver's BitSensors uses big data correlation and efficient attack detection to give visual insight into attacks and creates applications that learn to defend themselves. (www.bitsensor.io)
3. Amsterdam - MultiSense: MultiSense B.V. is a Start-Up company engaged in the industry of multibiometrics and advanced software solutions. Its unique technology merges multi-biometric factors: face and voice recognition, fingerprint signature, combined with GPS and NFC technologies (
4. Austin - The Car Force: The connected car company that increases customer retention and satisfaction for dealerships http://www.thecarforce.com/ | Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCarForce
5. Montevideo - BQuate: A solution for the music and video industry, helping to sell music to online stores worldwide. (https://www.bquate.com/ | Twitter: https://twitter.com/bquatemusic
6. Auckland - Eight Wire Limited: Reduces the risk and cost of moving to PaaS and IaaS. Conductor automates the majority of the effort to make cloud migration quick and easy. (https://www.eight-wire.com/
7. Los Angeles - YOSKO: Mobile care coordination for hospitals (http://www.yosko.com/ | https://twitter.com/yosko)
8. Boulder - Congo: The Simplest Way to Connect with an Attorney for free. Find an attorney. Connect via video chat. Enjoy peace of mind. (https://congo.io/ | Twitter: https://twitter.com/congo_io
9. Prague - Lime High Tech: Allows you to communicate with your mobile audience using targeted messages, personal chat or proximity based triggers to engage people in using your app or service (http://www.lime-company.eu/| https://twitter.com/lime_company?lang=en)
10. Mexico City - Capptu: A crowdsourced web platform designed to create a community of stock images that allows both amateur and professional photographers to have their photos available for sale in a marketplace where potential buyers can acquire licenses. (http://capptu.com/ | https://twitter.com/capptu)
All ten semi-finalists will be invited back to San Francisco in March 2016 to exhibit in the IBM SmartCamp Pavilion at LAUNCH Festival, the largest startup event in the world with over twenty-thousand attendees. Three will be selected to move on to step four, pitching live at LAUNCH Festival (http://www.smartcamp2015.com/rules/).
Please continue to follow the IBM Global Entrepreneur story on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ibmGE for updates from our ten startups and more news.
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.