Last Wednesday, 1 Feb 2012, was an all day mentoring session for the finalists in IBM's global Smartcamp competition. It was held at the old Federal Reserve Bank building in the financial district in San Francisco. Mentors, of which I was one, spent 40 minutes with each team, having first listened to their pitches. IBM provided a summary of each company. My notes on each are in bold. If you are interested in more background, contact me at info@cunningsystems.com .
Finalist Company Information: from IBM
1) BitCarrier www.bitcarrier.com
Bitcarrier is the leading provider of real-time traffic information for smart cities. Its patented Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scanning technology provides very accurate and reliable traffic information in real time.
By collecting locations from an average of 48% of target vehicles in real time, Bitcarrier has created the biggest database yet of citizens’ travel behavior. This information is the basis for decision-making regarding new infrastructure or mobility policies, such as the provisioning of public transportation, but it also has unlimited potential from private companies in services/applications they could provide to clients and cities.
Stored and managed in Bitcarrier’s private cloud, the data collected becomes valuable information about congestion generation, the origin and destination of travelers and commuting times.
Bitcarrier’s integrated platform is the seed for new deployments of traffic sensors in the city. It provides an integrated gateway for other technologies like outdoor parking and loops and it provides an open data stream platform and an advanced visualization tool for data dissemination. With Bitcarrier’s integrated platform, city managers can check several KPIs to understand the real benefits of newly implemented policies, and private companies have the infrastructure to develop services to solve end-users’
everyday problems. Bitcarrier’s vision is shared and used by cities such as Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and by some partners like Telvent-Schneider Electric.
Barcelona, Spain. Selling to highway toll operators - limited market - and to city governments in places which have little existing traffic control infrastructure and do have money. This means mainly Latin America. They aim to become the communications platform for other infrastructure status information.
2) C-B4 www.c-b4.info/jsite
C-B4 provides unique pattern-based predictive-analytics software that helps organizations make smarter decisions to improve their business results. C-B4 technology is fully automated and does not require experts’ support on
a regular basis. It provides vertical solutions for consumer products and retail customers, as well as a horizontal predictive-analytics server that is easily integrated into telecom, industrial and security systems. C-B4 server weaves its patterns from the actual data stream, and thus provides a unique pattern fingerprint for any object of interest: customer, product, process, service, website, user or more. C-B4 models identify hidden patterns, with practically no limitations on the number of hierarchies and
dimensions. As a result, C-B4 is innovative in three primary ways. It predicts changes much earlier than other solutions enabling actions sooner and reducing costs. It identifies anomalies and opportunities that others miss improving services levels. It identifies complex interrelationships among customers, stores, products, services and other key variables
These activities are performed automatically, with no need for expert intervention, and provide clear, actionable results. The company has leading customers such as Proctor & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, Applied Materials, Lely, Cellcom, Tnuva, Delek Group, Strauss, General Motors, the European Community, and several intelligence agencies.
Maskit St. Herzlyia, zip code 46733 Israel
Pattern based predictive analytics Academics out of Tel Aviv in 2000
10 person company, good match for Watson
3) ConnectM connectm.com
ConnectMs vision is to be a leading energy management solutions provider leveraging BI and analytics across telecom tower and building infrastructure.
The ConnectM offering is an end-to-end solution that provides remote monitoring and energy management of telecom infrastructure for energy spend optimization, operations and management, asset management and revenue
assurance. ConnectMs Energy management solution for commercial buildings monitors, optimizes and controls energy systems (e.g., lighting, HVAC, UPS, etc.).
The market for solutions that manage and optimize energy, as well as operational spends in the major target verticals, is estimated to be $16B (U.S.) globally. ConnectM leverages its current leadership position in India, with an install base of 5,000 cell sites, while aligning with global players to build a scalable and profitable business. A significant player
in commercial buildings in India, with an installed base of 3 million square feet of office space, ConnectM delivers annualized energy savings in excess of $4M (U.S.) to current customers, including leading Indian firms as well as global MNC companies.
4th Floor, KMJ Arcadia,No.15 (Old No.310/2),5th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore 560095
$6m funding in 2007 (Crunchbase) from IDG Ventures India (media biz, venture fund) and Sasken. These people need expansion capital, not venture - they have a repeatable installation and ROI model.
4) IDXP www.idxp.com.br/en/
IDXP analyzes consumer behavior in real time for the brick-and-mortar retail market. We track the paths to purchase and analyze shoppers’ behavior at the point of sale through an innovative technology that uses smart sensors in shopping carts to monitor their movement in real time. We generate online reports, insights and premium information to help
manufacturers and retailers make better decisions. We allow them to strengthen their marketing initiatives, raise their product conversion rates with instant results, and improve the overall shopping experience for consumers.
Raja Gabaglia, 2708 - Sala 133 - Estoril. CEP. 30.350-540. Belo Horizonte, MG - Brazil
Selling paid pilots to retail associations - groups of grocery stores, where one will be the pilot and the others will follow on. Some government funding. Sales process is 4 - 6 months.
5) Localytics www.localytics.com
Localytics offers the most powerful application analytics platform; giving mobile app publishers for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 the tools they need to build more successful and profitable applications. Localytics provides the only real-time service, session-level detail and data access demanded by top application publishers.
One Cambridge Center, 6th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142 USA
Funded $3.2m, 700k 5/10, $2.5m 4/11
Localytics provides mobile usage data and analytics for the mobile market, similar to companies such as Flurry and Medialets.Customer lifetime value is being optimized. http://www.localytics.com/blog/
Pricing Free; $100, $1000 /month.
8000 apps, 150m users - good video, on Vimeo
These people don't necessarily need any more capital - they are doing very well both in traction and in revenue.
6) Palmap palmap.cn
Palmap is a pioneering indoor mapping and POI open platform. Palmap aims to redefine indoor maps and bring new values to mobile users walking inside buildings rather than those driving on streets. We are seeking a breakthrough for the popular LBS applications, where our smarter, super-detailed maps and POI information will greatly help mobile users with indoor activities such as navigating airports and shopping. Based on Palmap’s innovative indoor GIS engine and open APIs, LBS developers could build numerous creative and interesting LBS and SNS Apps such as check-in, store locator, around-me search, location-based games, etc. Palmap incorporates the cutting-edge technologies of GIS, cloud computing, mobile computing and sensor networks to help make our planet smarter.
405, No.88 Lane 777, W Guangzhong Rd, Zhabei Distric, Shanghai 200072, China
Not locating individuals on maps in real time - providing (very detailed) map information to partners, who may. Gathering information by sending paid groups to malls, airports; also by crowdsourcing for updates. Has raised money from China and Hong Kong. Jacky Zhou (formerly Baidu) just joined as Chairman.
7) Profitero www.profitero.com
Profitero is a next-generation pricing intelligence service for retailers and manufacturers. The company helps clients to increase sales and maximize profits by leveraging high-quality online competitive data at scale. This allows businesses to react quickly to changes in their competitors’ prices. Some of the world’s biggest retailers already use Profitero pricing data.
Retailers and manufacturers have found Profitero’s data essential for pricing strategy, forecasting, ongoing price management, merchandising planning, product promotions and market/brand positioning.
The technology currently monitors 27.5 million products across 2,500 European retail websites with plans to grow this to 100 million products in 2012. Suited to online and brick-and-mortar retailers and manufacturers, Profitero’s easy-to-use web dashboard application can readily compare accurate pricing data across grocery, drinks, health and beauty, household and electrical goods – including A-brands as well as own-label lines.
Kill Ave, Dun Laoghaire, Co.Dublin, IRL
18 Dec 2011 - raised €750k series A, Delta Partners; Enterprise Ireland & Bank of Ireland
Development center in Belarus. These people won the competition.
8) Secure Waters secureaqua.com
SecureWaters, Inc. developed and commercialized patented technology that monitors detects and identifies toxins in surface water. We manufacture and sell the AquaSentinel, an electronic monitor/alarm system for continuous protection of drinking water sources. AquaSentinel is the first system of its kind to automatically and continuously test for chemical toxins in source water supplies using indigenous algae as the biosensor without the need for consumables or reagents. The system allows for early intervention counter-measures against potential threats or accidental contamination for source water assets typically used by water utilities for drinking water. This real-time chemical/biological detection system with remote sampling
and sensing capability significantly improves the safety of the nation’s water supply by ensuring a continuous stream of high-quality water. The sensor can be deployed in multiple units to create a network of interconnected devices, while reducing costs by replacing manual testing, providing 24/7 coverage, eliminating costly cleanup of water utilities and eliminating costly regulatory fines. All of these solutions solve demonstrated pain points our end-users have identified as needing a solution. Our proprietary software and its easy-to-use GUI interface can be integrated into municipal water facility control systems, allowing automatic and timely system protection and cost-savings.
8701 Dayton Pike, Soddy Daisy, TN 37379 USA
Web site needs a couple of case studies, from viewpoint of operators and purchasers. 1m pitch vid shows wireless transmitter, pictures of green algae. Self funded so far, could do with venture investment. Have licensed exclusive patents from Oak Ridge National Labs.
9) Skin Scan
Skin Scan SRL,60 Floreasca Street, Floor 6, District 1, Bucharest, Romania
blog http://skinscanapp.posterous.com/
http://cancerhelp.cancerresearchuk.org/trials/a-study-looking-skills-peo...
http://www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/gppcru/index.php?option=com_content&view=ar...
No hint at a business model. Do they know about the Edinburgh/Cambridge study ?
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/DERMOFIT/
$50k funding, October 2010
Videos from each finalist
http://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/isv_com_s...
List of mentors
http://ibmsmartcamp.com/2012/01/24/generous-mentors-look-who-is-coming-to/
IBM Smartcamp blog
http://ibmsmartcamp.com/
