Today, the five finalists for the coveted Auggie Award for Best Startup were announced. The award recognizes the most innovative and exciting startup in the fields of Augmented Reality, Wearable Tech, or Internet of Things. The Startup Launchpad Session will be moderated by AWE Partner Ubergizmo‘s founder Eliane Fiolet on May 29th at 1:30-2:30 pm.
The finalists are:
- Jean-Michel Fournier (CEO, Bitgym). Bitgym transform cardio-exercise into an exciting & addictive experience.
- Dima Kislovskiy (CEO, Augary) Augary delivers in-car software solutions which plug directly into smartphone apps and in-vehicle systems.
- Anush Elangovan (CEO, Nod Labs) – Nod Labs, believes technology should be unobtrusive and magical.
- Ryan Rogowski (CEO, Waygo). Waygo instantly translates Chinese and Japanese by just pointing your phone camera at the text – no Internet required.
- George Bolanos (CEO, InsideMaps). Insidemaps is the world’s first mobile APP that allows anyone to easily create a 3D model and floor plan of their home
The startup launchpad, now in its 5th year, gives five AR/wearable startups five minutes each to pitch their company and product in front a judging panel that consists of VCs and Entrepreneurs. The panel asks questions, comments and eventually selects the winner based on its likelihood for success (1:30-2:30 pm on May 29). The winner will be awarded an Auggie Award during the wrap up ceremony (4-5 pm on May 29th).
Last year’s winner was Robert Wang, CEO, of 3GEARS SYSTEMS.
The Auggie Award™ Competition recognizes the best teams who develop technology and solutions that make the world more interactive and our life and work more engaging, productive, and fun. Consistent with AugmentedReality.org’s mission to educate, connect, and hatch new initiatives in the augmented world, and AugmentedReality.org’s global goal to inspire adoption towards the goal of 1 billion active AR users by 2020, AugmentedReality.org is co-sponsoring this competition, offering award trophies and cash prizes.
In addition to the best startup competition and Best Wearable Hack (at the AWE Hackathon – sign up now!), Auggie Awards will be handed out this year in 5 major categories and 3 subcategories to a total of 10 award trophies:
1) Best Enterprise Solution
2) Best Software – sub-category: Mobile or Wearable app
3) Best Software – sub-category: Game
4) Best Software – sub-category: Campaign, and City Visions
5) Best Tools for Developers Including SDK, or Creation Tool
6) Best Hardware – sub category: Eyewear
7) Best Hardware – sub category: Wearable, other (sensor, chip, robotics)
8) Best Film including design concept and documentary
Public voting for the Auggie Awards will take place between May 1st – 23rd. Winners will be announced during the Auggie Awards Ceremony on May 28th, 2014.
To vote, go to augmentedworldexpo.com/auggies/, select one category at a time and vote for your favorite nomination.
Here are last year’s winners: http://augmentedworldexpo.com/past-auggie-award-winners/.
