The GSMA, the global trade group for the mobile industry, announced the overall winner of the ‘virtual’ online round of its 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Competition. Winners were named in each of five categories, from which InfoGin was selected as the overall winner and put forward to compete in the Global Finals at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, next February (16-19 February 2009).
“We are thrilled with the number of high-quality entries received for the first ever virtual tournament, as part of our Global Innovation Competition,” said Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer at the GSMA. “This round has proven to be an invaluable platform for innovators – outside of our regional rounds – to pitch new ideas to influential executives from the mobile industry. Our congratulations to InfoGin, the overall winner which now goes forward to the finals at the Mobile World Congress.”
The GSMA engaged with Carmel Ventures, a leading VC fund in Israel, Google, Microsoft R&D Center, Pitango Venture Capital, Sequoia Capital, Orange Israel, Amdocs, Israel Mobile & Communications Association, AICC, and TheMarker, the leading business website and newspaper in Israel, to present a truly virtual round of the tournament. The tournament was held in Israel at the Microsoft R&D Center and communicated virtually with judges, speakers and innovators from all corner of the globe and then broadcast via LiveU streaming technology online.
The tournament resulted in the selection of the most innovative start-up company to compete with other regional finalists (selected at the GSMA’s Americas, APAC and EMEA tournaments) at the mobile industry’s biggest annual event in Barcelona.
The overall winner of the Virtual Tournament and Global Finalist is:
- InfoGin, Israel
The Top Innovators and Global Semi-Finalists / Category Winners (**) are:
Most Innovative Wireless Device-centric Technology
- Discretix, Israel
- WiSpry, USA**
Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructure or Platform
- Amobee, Israel & USA
- Infogin, Israel & USA**
Most Innovative True Mobile Start-Up
- Tagattitude, France**
- Nextivity, USA
Most Innovative Consumer Application
- Silent Communications, Israel & USA**
- Device Anywhere, USA
Most Innovative Mobile Application in a Vertical Market
- MobiMate, Ltd, Israel**
The Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition was created by the GSMA as part of the Mobile Innovation Market, which encourages breakthrough technology, applications and services in the mobile industry by bringing together smaller companies developing innovative mobile products, industry investors from leading venture capital firms, and senior figures from mobile operators and leading global brands.
Quotes from the judges:
“Orange always seeks innovation and new ideas that help us offer our customers new options. At this particular Virtual Tournament, we’ve seen some top-notch technology from across the globe,” said Steve Glagow, VP Partner Program, Orange. “The GSMA has again pulled together a winning group of contestants making the choice difficult for the judges. However, one of the technologies stood out above the rest and warrants special recognition and progression to Mobile World Congress in 2009. Congratulations InfoGin and best of luck.”
“As a co-organizer of the event, we were thrilled with the level of quality we saw in the Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition entries at the Virtual Tournament,” said Rina Shainski, General Partner, Carmel Ventures. “This first Virtual Tournament that was held in Israel, hopefully a beginning of a tradition, delivered a true global experience for the participants, judges, speakers and top innovators from 5 different time-zones. Congratulations to all of the Global Semi-Finalists, with special recognition extended to InfoGin.”
“It was great to be able to participate in this new event! We seek out promising new companies and we have tapped the great source with GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Market community. This was a great way of bringing GSMA’s global focus to the enthusiastic mobile communities such as the one in Israel. Congratulations to all of the winners! You deserve the accolades,” said Yuval Baharav, Partner, Sequoia Capital.
“As mentioned in my keynote address today, ‘the industry is building a new ecosystem around the Mobile Internet’, and InfoGin gets it. Well done!” said Dr. Mike Short, VP of R&D, Telefonica-O2 and Past Chairman, GSMA.
Other distinguished judges include, Dr. Cheol Kim, Team Lead of Future Business Sourcing Team, SK Telecom, Dotan Volach, Entrepreneur & Investor, Rami Kalish, Managing General Partner & Co-Founder, Pitango Venture Capital.
For more information please contact [email protected] or visit www.mobileinnovation.org
About GSMA
The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade body representing more than 750 GSM mobile phone operators across 218 countries and territories of the world. The Association’s members represent more than 3 billion GSM and 3GSM connections – over 86% of the world’s mobile phone connections. In addition, more than 200 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association’s initiatives.
The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers.
For further information contact:
David Pringle
Email: [email protected]