01-10-2008, 11:39 AM
London, U.K., 1 October 2008 – The European Semantic Technology Conference (ESTC2008, 24-26 September, Vienna) has announced the winners of this year’s business idea contest.
The three-day conference, in its second year, brought together more than 210 semantic technology experts from 24 different countries. Among the conference highlights was the business idea contest where smart start-ups were given the chance to win a cash prize and consultancy to help them get started on making their semantic technology application a commercial success.
Sindice (http://sindice.com/), a data web service, was pronounced the winner, followed in second place by D.O.O.M (http://www.doom-srl.it) and third place by INNORAISE (http://www.innoraise.com), which both developed solutions for HR management.
The jury, consisting of international semantic technology experts, nominated the winners based on three criteria: business idea, technology and business model. Entrants were required to:
- Present innovative and new semantic applications which can be used for commercial benefit
- Showcase that their idea has the potential to revolutionise the way enterprises work
- Prove that the idea offers a return on investment (ROI) for potential customers
- Plan to take their solutions to market within the next 1.5 years
Sindice, which offers an easy-to-use data web service that allows users to search for existing information on the internet and re-package it to offer further services, convinced the jury with a strong demonstration of the business value of its web 3.0 solution.
D.O.O.M., which lets HR professionals search their job candidate database in a smarter way, convinced the jury with a clear focus on their target market. INNORAISE, a people-centric search engine, stood out because of a clear concept to market its product and make it a commercial success.
“This year’s business idea contest saw very strong entries from promising start-ups in the sector of semantic technology. Clearly, semantic technology is coming out of the research lab and being applied in real business scenarios – and there is a huge commercial potential. We are happy to be able to support these business ideas and hope to see each of them grow successfully,” said Hannes A. Schwetz, Investment Manager at austria wirtschaftsservice (aws), the federal finance bank with a special start-up programme funding innovative technology-based companies with high market and growth potential.
The winner was awarded a prize of 5000 Euros, the second prize, of 2500 Euros, and the third prize was a cheque for 1000 Euros.
Among the judges were international experts such as Peter Jackson (CSO, Thomson Reuters), Michael Brodie (CSO, Verizon) and Klaus Matzka (IT Entrepreneur and Founder and Managing partner at venture capitalist at GCP).
The contest was funded by the austria wirtschaftsservice (aws) and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour of Austria.
The ESTC is an annual conference organised by the Semantic Technology Institute International (STI International). Next year’s event will be held from 30 September-2 October 2009.
Press contact:
Grant Butler Coomber
Tel. +44 20 8322 1922
Email estc2008@gbc.co.uk
The three-day conference, in its second year, brought together more than 210 semantic technology experts from 24 different countries. Among the conference highlights was the business idea contest where smart start-ups were given the chance to win a cash prize and consultancy to help them get started on making their semantic technology application a commercial success.
Sindice (http://sindice.com/), a data web service, was pronounced the winner, followed in second place by D.O.O.M (http://www.doom-srl.it) and third place by INNORAISE (http://www.innoraise.com), which both developed solutions for HR management.
The jury, consisting of international semantic technology experts, nominated the winners based on three criteria: business idea, technology and business model. Entrants were required to:
- Present innovative and new semantic applications which can be used for commercial benefit
- Showcase that their idea has the potential to revolutionise the way enterprises work
- Prove that the idea offers a return on investment (ROI) for potential customers
- Plan to take their solutions to market within the next 1.5 years
Sindice, which offers an easy-to-use data web service that allows users to search for existing information on the internet and re-package it to offer further services, convinced the jury with a strong demonstration of the business value of its web 3.0 solution.
D.O.O.M., which lets HR professionals search their job candidate database in a smarter way, convinced the jury with a clear focus on their target market. INNORAISE, a people-centric search engine, stood out because of a clear concept to market its product and make it a commercial success.
“This year’s business idea contest saw very strong entries from promising start-ups in the sector of semantic technology. Clearly, semantic technology is coming out of the research lab and being applied in real business scenarios – and there is a huge commercial potential. We are happy to be able to support these business ideas and hope to see each of them grow successfully,” said Hannes A. Schwetz, Investment Manager at austria wirtschaftsservice (aws), the federal finance bank with a special start-up programme funding innovative technology-based companies with high market and growth potential.
The winner was awarded a prize of 5000 Euros, the second prize, of 2500 Euros, and the third prize was a cheque for 1000 Euros.
Among the judges were international experts such as Peter Jackson (CSO, Thomson Reuters), Michael Brodie (CSO, Verizon) and Klaus Matzka (IT Entrepreneur and Founder and Managing partner at venture capitalist at GCP).
The contest was funded by the austria wirtschaftsservice (aws) and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour of Austria.
The ESTC is an annual conference organised by the Semantic Technology Institute International (STI International). Next year’s event will be held from 30 September-2 October 2009.
Press contact:
Grant Butler Coomber
Tel. +44 20 8322 1922
Email estc2008@gbc.co.uk