BUSINESSWEEKLY December 8-15, 2011

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Cambridge Wireless’ Discovering Start-Ups 2011

Five wireless companies regarded as global game-changers emerged as winners of the CambridgeWireless Discovering Start-Ups 2011 competitionin the UK.

The quality quintet to emerge from a world-class day of judgement were Mindings, AdvancedBalance Systems, Blu wireless, Qiqqa andProxama. They were chosen from 23 shortlistedcompanies that pitched to investors and judgesat Queens’ College Cambridge today.

Walkasins, the invention of Advanced BalanceSystems’ – (advancedbalancesystems.com) –majored in a Business Weekly preview of thefinalists last month. Walkasins is a wearablemedical device that helps reduce the risk of fallsin people with balance problems by up to 50 percent. One in three over 65s will sustain a fall-related injury at great personal and economiccost. Walkasins works by providing vibrotactilebiofeedback to augment or replace impairedbalance sensation and is a new approach tosolving this serious problem.

Mindings (www.mindings.com) connectsfamilies by enabling rich connections; anyone witha mobile phone can share meaningful momentswith their family members. Personal captionedphotos, text messages, calendar reminders,Facebook content and much more appearinstantly on a digital photo frame they don’t evenneed to touch. Mindings is an Android App thatcan run on a number of often-inexpensiveinternet-connected digital tablets and devices.

The content – perhaps a holiday photograph,a reminder of a doctor’s appointment, or a just aspontaneous “Thinking about you!” SMS textmessage message – cycles through without therecipient ever having to touch the device.

Blu Wireless Technology Ltd –(www.bluwirelesstechnology.com) – is a fablesssemiconductor company developing low costmulti-Gigabit WiFi products set to become a corecomponent of all tomorrow’s consumerelectronics devices. The unique single chip 60 GHztransceiver being developed will be of significantlyreduced cost and power with emphasis on

manufacturability when compared to theanticipated competing products. The product willallow mobile operators to offload cloud basedvideo data from their networks by the nearinstantaneous syncing to portable platforms withvery low battery usage. Demonstrations of>2Gbps data transfers have already been made toa now ‘highly excited’ Japanese customer base.

Qiqqa (www.qiqqa.com)– is a software thathelps researchers manage and extract maximumvalue from their research materials. Headed up by

Jimme Jardine, the company has had a brilliantrun of success in local entrepreneurshipcompetitions this year, including CambridgeUniversity Entrepreneurs’ grand finals.

Combining innovative tools with powerfulnatural language processing, Qiqqa letsresearchers cope with the avalanche of papers andinformation that their research involves.

Qiqqa helps them focus on the importantfacts, discover related material and improve recall.

Proxama Ltd (www.proxama.com) is a

specialist in developing near-field communicationand contactless technology.

With the recent acquisition of proximitymarketing company, Hypertag in Cambridge,Proxama is now in a unique position to offerexpertise in all areas of proximity and mobilemarketing.

Proxama worked alongside MasterCardWorldwide to create an end-to-end paymentsolution and has recently signed a partnershipagreement with Nokia to develop NFCapplications for the new generation ofsmartphones.

Senior representatives from companiesincluding Microsoft, RIM, Nokia, QualcommVentures, Innovacom, Broadcom, Orange, O2Telefonica and ARM were on hand to judge thefinalists and provide expert advice.

In addition to trophies, the winners eachreceived £2,000 along with free business andconsultancy services. They also have theopportunity to present their new technologies andbusiness visions to 300+ leading wireless industrydelegates from over 20 countries at the 2012Future of Wireless International Conference nextJune.

“The quality of entrants shows thatinnovation and entrepreneurship is clearly verymuch alive,” said Clennell Collingwood,Investment Director at TTP Ventures. “We areconfident that the winners and many of the otherfinalists will go on to make importantcontributions to the wireless industry.”

Revealed – Wireless winners that can change the world

Stuart Arnott from Mindings pitching to the judges at Discovering Start-Ups 2011.

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Dr Soraya Jones, CEO of Cambridge Wireless,said: “All the finalists had a unique opportunityto pitch to a dream line up of business angels, VCsand corporate investors with years of experienceof spotting winners.

“The support from the judges, sponsors,Cambridge Wireless members and entrants hasbeen excellent and reflects the level of expertise,encouragement and business infrastructure thatexists to nurture and help drive the success ofinnovative start ups.”

Now in its second year, Discovering Start-Upswas supported by the East of EnglandDevelopment Agency and sponsored byMicrolease, Neondrum, Rohde and Schwarz, S-Tech Insurance Services, Dorsey and Whitney andAlliantus.

Other organisations backing the CambridgeWireless Discovering Start-Ups initiative include:Avidity IP, Business Link, Cambridge Network,Cambridge University, CamtechNet, ConnectedCambridge, Enterprise Europe Network, Google,IdeaSpace, Innovation Martlesham, Nesta, OneNucleus, St John’s Innovation Centre and Survive& Thrive.

Leo Poll, co-champion of CambridgeWireless’s Business SIG, told judges and gueststhat it was impressive how the East of Englandmanaged to produce such an enormous numberof startups on a yearly basis.

Cambridge Wireless chairman David Cleevelyadded that the standard of presentations was ofsuch a high level from the start that it had madethe judges’ job very difficult.

The finalists:

Talking Eye Limited (www.talkingeye.net) – its‘My Butler’ technology allows consumerswherever they are in the world to communicatewith people on their doorstep.'MyButler’ is theworld’s first and only mobile telecomsintercom/doorbell monitoring device thatincludes two-way talk. MyButler enablesconsumers (while anywhere in the world) tocommunicate with visitors to their home frontdoor and enhance security using real time voice-to-voice and visual communication throughmobile networks.

LeapLog (leaplog.com) – a web application fortravel planning which allows friends tocollaboratively plan, create and share trips.LeapLog provides a common interface formembers of a travelling group to discover andshare information, and facilitate importantdecisions such as travel dates, destinations andactivities.

Handy Elephant Ltd (handyelephant.com) – aproductivity app for business professionals whohave to maintain a large number of relationships

across multiple channels (e.g. Phone, SMS, Email,Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook). Handy Elephant islike a Personal Assistant that tells users whothey need to follow up with, when the best timeis to get in touch, and which channels will bemost effective.

App Damon (www.appdamon.com) focuses onmobile application discovery. As the number ofmobile applications increase, there is anincreasing need for smart technology todisseminate, review and recommend apps toconsumers. With the user’s permission, the appdiscovery platform scans the user’s interactionon social networks to determine their interests.Once interests have been determined, suitableapps are recommended to the user. Users canalso share, review and recommend apps to theirfriends.

Ellexus Ltd (www.ellexus.com) – Many processesin the hardware and software industry requiretasks to be automated using scripts. These aresmall modifiable programs that control morecomplicated software. Many scripts can worktogether to form complex flows. Ellexus’software, Breeze, helps engineers design,understand and debug these flows.

TeqniHome Ltd (www.teqnihome.com) – Rollingout a completely new next-generationcommunication product along with a key servicetargeting residential and business users whilemaking sure that their intelligence is notunnecessarily increased to affect theiraffordability. With this product and service

mixture which is based on at least 5 pendingpatents, TeqniHome aims to target three majormulti-billion pound markets.

AppSherpas (www.appsherpas.com) – Usingimage discovery, illumiEye™ connects the realand on-line worlds through your mobile.Reading a favourite magazine? Scan an article’sillustrations making the images come alive onyour mobile. Window shopping and see a musthave item? Scan the window for more detailsand buy. Watching the TV and want to call thatnumber being shown on the advertisement?Scan the screen with your mobile and make thatcall. A bus is passing: Snap a picture of themovie advert displayed on it’s side and be takento the movie trailer/cinema’s ticket office.

Games for Life/BioDigitalHealth(www.gamesforlife.co.uk) – has been involvedin applying wireless brain sensing computer

games for health difficulties; testing of newbrainwaves for assessing non-motor orspeech based patients has led to theprototype of a Brain Typewriter.Collaborative projects in telehealth, medicalapplications & robotics are underway – plusthe UK’s first attention-memory training iLab.

Eeve (geteeve.com) – A mobile app, allowingusers to take pictures together andcollaboratively tell a story when having adinner, being at a party or simply hangingout with friends. Users can start or join anEeve to share pictures with their closeproximity. People at the same location, theirfriends at home and others in the area will beable to experience who is there and what’sgoing on from many perspectives, in realtime.

>>> Continued on page 20

Carl Davis from app damon pitching to the Discovering Start-Ups 2011 judges

Dr Rosemary Francis from Ellexus Ltd pitching to the judges

Cambridge Wireless chairman, David Cleevely

Benjamin Wirtz from Handy Elephant Ltd

Photographs by Alan Bennett, Media Imaging Solutionswww.mediaimagingsolutions.com/

BUSINESSWEEKLY December 8-15, 2011

THE GOLDEN GENERATION www.businessweekly.co.uk

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>>> From page 19

TribalOS (www.tribalos.com) – A web basedcollaboration suite that gets together the bestfrom offline and online, offering to user afriendly environment to work.

Voyage Manager Travel Manager(www.voyagemanager.com) – A web based traveltracking, management and security service thatprovides businesses with an easy to use andcost efficient platform for managing andmonitoring employee travel. Voyage Manager isa highly automated system accessible from anylocation by web, SMS and mobile phone.

Job Hop (www.jobhop.co.u) – With 80 per centof employers now searching on line forcandidates to keep costs down, Job Hop is theway. Job Hop offers the jobseeker both activeand passive a window to showcase their skillsand expertise and facilities to share this acrossthe networks enticing employers that are notalready browsing on Job Hop to look. For theemployer Job Hop offers facilities to attract theright employee, reducing recruitment costsdramatically. Also has the ability to engage andforge relationships with candidates suitable forfuture vacancies.

Skrybot (skrybot.pl/en) – Providing a wholespectrum of speech recognition products forcustomers. They range from specialist dictationsoftware for legal and medical purposes,through general dictation, automated telephonecall centres, to complex server ASR systems. Ithas developed support for two languages: Polishand English and seeks to enter to other EUcountries.

Sunfish Energy Ltd (www.sunfish.eu) – Its newunique concentrated solar power plantsgenerate process heat and electricity at very

high efficiencies without the need for feed intariffs. The groundbreaking modular technologyharnesses the very latest in advanced solar celldesign, low cost optics, heat extraction, fast fieldassembly and efficient transportation. Fullyscalable for utility, industrial and commercialinstallations such as hotels, factories, mine sitesand remote communities, Sunfish solar plantswill generate electricity across multiple locationsbelow local grid supply costs and easilyundercut the cost of electricity from dieselgenerator systems.

Savage Minds Limited (savageminds.org) – Has

developed FUTS™ a smartphone trialmanagement software that realises the potentialand solves the pain of Friendly User Test (FUT)programs at operators and manufacturers.Specifically, FUTS: 1. Organises trial devices andusers, 2. Measures user engagement, 3. Assessesdevice performance, 4. Judges software reliabilityand 5. Captures user feedback accurately.

Psonar (www.psonar.com) – This is about helpingmusic fans to find, enjoy and share great music.Listen to any track once for one penny (a cent, aUK penny or a Eurocent or equivalent dependingon where you are). Create a playlist and share it

with anyone else - they pay a penny to listen toeach track. Create a playlist and gift it to anyoneelse – you've paid for them to listen. Psonar isgood for music – every time a track is playedartists and rights holders get paid and sharing andgifting music on Psonar helps spread new music.

GoSense Wireless Ltd (www.gosense-wireless.com) – Is developing ultra-low powersensor nodes for industrial, scientific andconsumer markets. Its Stat-ID™ range ofcontactless sensor/logger products includessensors for temperature, pressure, light, humidity,motion, carbon monoxide and force as well asapplication specific products and OEM modules.Every sensor node has a unique ID, operates froma coin-cell or energy harvesting device, andconsumes an ultra-low 5 uW in standby. Thewireless interface has a read range of up to 2metres and is compatible with ISO15693. Nodescan additionally operate passively (withoutbatteries) by scavenging energy from the EM fieldof the reader.

Jasper Apps Ltd (www.jasperapps.com) –Produced My Vacation, a travel app for the iPhoneand iPad that allows the user to create atravelogue on their device. It assists in theplanning and journalling of trips. The traveljournals can then be viewed in an interactivepresentation and shared in multiple ways.

Moneta will offer 20,000 sq ft net internal area of laboratory and office accommodation in units of circa 600 sq ft offered on flexible short term leases

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Nicola Kinsey 01223 496334 nicola.kinsey@babraham.co.uk

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With comprehensive 24/7 on-site security, tenants have access to our canteen, coffee shop facilities, on-site nursery, gym and bar. Also available are conference, seminar and meeting rooms, seating between 10-200 people in the classic Main Hall or in our modern Riverside Meeting Room Suite, all with full IT connectivity and catering provision. The Bioincubator Buildings are located alongside the Babraham Institute, a world-leading life sciences research organisation, providing access to scientific services and potential for academic - commercial interaction.

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www.arm.com

in association with

The Golden Generation

Cambridge Wireless’ Discovering Start-Ups 2011

Photograph by Alan Bennett, Media Imaging Solutions. www.mediaimagingsolutions.com