INSIGHTS / News

Six ambitious technology start-ups from Cambridge and seven from London will be pitching against each other in the finals of the Discovering Start-Ups 2014 Competition on 22^nd of October. The 12 innovative companies are among the 18 finalists shortlisted from over 80 UK entrants from the South West to the North of England that will face a panel of 23 judges, including industry experts and investors from the likes of Google, BT, Broadcom, IBM, Orange Labs, Samsung, London Business Angels and Cambridge Angels.

The Discovering Start-ups competition is organised by Cambridge Wireless (CW) and SETsquared Partnership – an enterprise collaboration of the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey – along with the support of Tech City UK, techUK, The New Entrepreneurs Foundation and UK Trade & Investment. The London finals will be sponsored and hosted by Deloitte.

The start-ups representing the Cambridge tech-cluster will be giftgaming® a patent pending in-game advertising service; GeoSpock, a scalable platform for mobile developers to enhance and monetize their applications; Aseptika, an integrated suite of self-monitoring devices and services under the Activ8rlives brand; Speechmatics, a provider of cloud-based pay-as-you-go speech recognition; Cambridge Intelligence, with a toolkit to build custom network visualisation apps; and AppNearMe, a development platform providing solutions for developing proximity-based IoT applications using Near Field Communication.

From London, the companies looking to make a good impression are CrowdEmotion, a software company providing cloud based facial coding technology that can measure emotions; Enigmedia, providing real-time and tailor-made data encryption solutions; PLAYIR, a provider of real-time 3D multiplayer game and app design tools; The Outside View, a predictive analytics company that uses complex algorithms and machine learning; KO-SU, a mobile learning platform; and Our Mobile Health, a provider of apps for healthcare organisations.

“It’s great to be involved in a project attracting so many talented start-up founders drawn from across the country,” says Paul Lee, Global Head of Tech, Media & Telco Research at Deloitte. “The DS14 Competition brings creative talent and industry expertise together to network, mentor and pitch in a dynamic and challenging way. The London final line-up looks really exciting.”

Five lucky winners will take home the following prizes: the ticket to the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona, a unique opportunity to pitch to the UKTI stand during the MWC15, SETsquared 6 month Virtual membership with mentoring and investor support, Cambridge Wireless Founder Membership for one year, the ticket to Cambridge Wireless ‘Future of Wireless International Conference 2015’ and a £500 cash prize.

The DS14 Competition final is sponsored and hosted by Deloitte at its London offices on 22^nd October 2014 and jointly sponsored by Qualcomm Ventures, Google, Microlease and Keysight Technologies, IC Resources, Dorsey & Whitney and supported by Tech City UK, techUK, The New Entrepreneurs Foundation and UK Trade & Investment.

To find out more and to attend the DS14 visit www.cambridgewireless.co.uk/dsu