Geddit, UnlockYourBrain and apiOmat will represent Germany in the NEXT conference startup pitch contest later this month. Also on the list of 12 finalists which have emerged from the preliminary rounds are companies from Austria, France, Italy, the UK, Portugal and Sweden. They will all have the opportunity to pitch their project on the startup stage at the conference, which is one of Germany’s biggest.
Organised by SinnerSchrader, the eighth NEXT aims to highlight trends in the global digital economy and will reportedly attract more than 2,000 people from around the world. It will take place on April 23 and 24 at the bcc near Alexanderplatz.
The German trio will be hoping to emulate Berlin-based Squadmail, a service similar to Dropbox for emails, which walked away with the €20,000 startup pitch prize last year. Geddit is an online platform for students to provide feedback on their classes and teachers – replacing raising your hand when you don’t understand something which using your smartphone or tablet.
The second German finalist, UnlockYourBrain, is an app that transforms the screenlock on your phone into a didactic tool by confronting the user with a mathematical, logic, or language puzzle every time the phone is unlocked. Thirdly there is apiOmat which offers a complete software stack including a scalable hosting solution to simplify app development processes.
Other finalists include Italian transport platform Wanderio and LineMetrics, a Google Analytics for production lines based in Austria.
Peter Borchers from hub:raum, which is sponsoring the startup stage, said: “We are thrilled that so many startups have submitted their fantastic ideas and that it is going to be a real international competition.” Alongside Peter, the jury deciding the winner will include Rob Moffat from Balderton, startup expert Paula Martilla, Nicole Glaros of the TechStars incubator and Caroline Drucker from Etsy.