The honor of announcing the winners of the Israeli Venture Association’s Startup Competition, a business pitch event co-sponsored by DEMO’s partner in Germany.
Sixty-nine Israeli startups submitted plans and 11 finalists were selected by a panel of judges to present during the conference in DEMO’s tried-and-true six-minute format. A few of the finalists should be familiar to DEMO devotees. DEMO alums Worklight and Delver each made it to the final round.
Here’s a quick rundown of the final pitches:
Techtium is a fables semiconductor company developing an integrated circuit that allows portable electronics and other consumer devices to run on hybrid rechargeable power as well as alkaline batteries. The company’s Energi to Go implementation is an external charger that adds three hours of talk time to a mobile phone.
Worklight (which was Serendipity Technologies when it launched at DEMO 07) allows businesses to easily integrate salespeople and channel partners into the the enterprise data flow using secure RSS or AJAX widgets.
Diagnostic Technologies is medical diagnostics company developing a biomarker that detects the risk of toxemia in pregnant women. As many as 207,000 women die from pre-eclampsia each year, women who can be saved by this company’s $50 blood test.
WeFi is creating a world-wide network of open WiFi hot spots. A small client application identifies available WiFi hot spots, while collecting data about open networks that is added to the company’s comprehensive database.
Redbend Software develops Fota – firmware over the air: The company’s technology enables mobile operators to update mobile firmware over the air, reflashing the device even while it is in use.
ID-U Biometrics uses unique eye-movement patterns to identify people. This very early stage company is developing an application that detects eye movement as users engage with online commerce applications.
Delver, which launched its technology at DEMO 08, crosses social network concepts with search to allow users to find content, media and people within their social networks.
Modu is a tiny, modular mobile phone, that can be slipped into a wide variety of modu jackets – stylishly designed phone enclosures – and modu mates – modu-enabled consumer electronics devices.
Petnovations is developing products to improve the lives of pets and pet owners. The company’s first product is CatGenie, a self-cleaning litter box. To come soon: a dog collar that automatically dispenses anti-flea solution.
Gizmoz is a consumer entertainment site that lets individuals create 3-D avatars from their 2-D photograph. The company is soon to release Be A Star which combines content from branded media, such as feature films, with the company’s avatars.
Nearly 1,500 people voted by SMS for their favorite businesses. Their choices, organizers told me, aligned with the top finishers as determined by the judges. The IVA Startup Competition prize went to an unfunded, incubator-based company: ID-U Biometrics. The company automatically receives a spot at DEMOgermany in October.
