Localz was honoured to be the IBM SmartCamp Australia winner this year. The award was given to the startup company that has a strong offering around Cloud, Big Data, Mobile or Social. We were able to demonstrate how our location technology enhances customer experience via mobile apps.
Jason Were and Richard Lay were the two members from our team, who secured the win. Localz received $120,000 in IBM cloud credits and mentoring, technical and go-to-market support.
"We are delighted to have won IBM's 2015 SmartCamp. The event was an impressive showcase of innovative local technology and a great opportunity for feedback and validation from leaders in the industry. For us, it is further reinforcement of our proposition and the awesome customer experiences our technology delivers” commented Jason Were, Business Development Director at Localz.
The IBM SmartCamp Australia 2015 was held in Melbourne on 15th September and Localz competed against four other Australian startups: Bugwolf, CryptoPhoto, Level35 and Moroku. Over 100 people attended the event ranging from expert advisors, venture capitalists, serial entrepreneurs, industry leaders to IBM technical and industry experts.
SmartCamp is part of IBM’s Global Entrepreneur Program and is run by IBM in partnership with LAUNCH. The program aims to identify early stage startups who are developing business ventures that bring different points of view and new ideas around Cloud, Big Data and Analytics, Mobile and Social. It also allows startup companies to connect with IBM’s vast global network of clients, consultants, innovation centres, and developers.
This year, 90 companies applied to participate in IBM SmartCamp and only five finalists got to the final stage. Being one of the five finalists, Localz had to deliver a six-minute pitch, presenting on the following topics:
- Business Problem the solution solves
- Market & customer
- Solution / Technology/Design
- Business model
- Team
We were up against Bugwolf, a Software as a Service (SaaS), which enables software testers to assess applications, websites and products in the way customers use them. Also, CryptoPhoto was another finalist that offers a security platform that blocks phishing and neutralises malware through photo validation instead of passwords. The third opponent, Level35, develops and supports cloud-based project portfolio management (PPM) application, OneView PPM. This platform has an intuitive layout and rich feature set to equip organisations with the ability to better manage project outcomes. Last but not least, Moroku was the fifth contestant and it is a software company that operates at the intersection of mobile, gaming and social to create an engaging banking and payment experiences that promote customer learning and brand loyalty.
Winning the IBM SmartCamp 2015 was only the beginning for us. Since then, we have won the Customer Connected award at Retail Recharged and we have participated in the Retail Week Hackathon. But there are many more competitions, pitches and events we are preparing for, so watch out the website and Social Media for details!
Following the blog post from September, here are more details from the competition.