The Techcrunch London Summer Meetup rolled into town this week as part of our Summer Tour to promote TechCrunch Disrupt in London on October 20-21. We had a bunch of brand new startups apply.
The pitch-off was judged by TechCrunch writers Ingrid Lunden and Natasha Lomas and myself, with Andy Chung of AngelList and James Governor of Shoreditch Works, our hosts. We were kindly supported by sponsorship from Almaz Capital, Gordon and Eden and Mobfox.
We listened to a bunch of brand new startup founders talk about their products in a fast-paced 90 second style, achieved in difficult conditions as the supplier of air conditioning units had… not supplied them.
But, in the end, we had one overall winner.
The winner was GiftGaming.com. This startup is addressing the problem that 50% of games are free-to-play but only 1.5% of players make in-app purchases. Meanwhile, UK Mobile Ad Spend will reach £2bn and the in-game ads industry is worth £1.1bn. So GiftGaming’s idea is to create a platform for self-service in-game adverts, enabling game publishers to integrate it, brands to run campaigns on it, such as offering power ups and discount coupons. In other words, brands pay for you in-game purchases when you interact with their ads. GiftGaming then runs on revenues from commissions. This is a seriously great idea and they have already raised seed capital. They will receive a Startup Alley table at TechCrunch Disrupt London.
The runner-ups and winner of two tickets each company to Disrupt London were Rook and Keekla.
Rook is an eBook platform with an innovative content delivery method. Users have free access to their entire library of books when on defined networks or locations such as cafes, airports & transportation networks. When not on these networks, content switches from freemium to premium â€" users must now pay for the same content. The analogy is this: you can walk into a bookstore now and read any book you want but if you want to walk away with it you have to buy it.
The other runner-up was Keekla, a mobile first platform connecting companies and individuals directly during a recruitment campaign. Keekla wants to disrupt the outdated recruitment market by providing a “discreet, accurate and direct mobile platform built exclusively to connect the hiring company with job seekers.†A person creates profile, says what looking for and instead of going to recruiters.
Here is the full list of the startups that pitched. All of them were interesting, and many had already raised seed capital. Thanks for making the TechCrunch London Summer meetup a success and we’ll see you next year!
PlayEnable
Location based search to find and book fitness classes and sports activities.
CharityStars
A fundraising platform that helps charitable organisations raise funds by auctioning unique celebrity experiences and memorabilia.
local.app
One app on your phone that automatically adapts its content to your location, with offers.
Hitch
A social discovery app that lets users play the matchmaker, select two friends and set them up on a date. ‘My single friend in mobile app form’.
Friend-Chain
App for iOS, where users can create fun video compilation ‘chains’ with their friends and share them with the world.
ZenSuite
A booking and hotel management platform for independent hotels.
Flirt Planet Play
‘Gamifying Romance’ this blends together social interactions, human courtship, behavioural psychology and neuroscience with video game mechanics.
Tellyo
With Tellyo TV broadcasters and media companies can engage TV viewers on 2nd screen devices as well as monetize this interaction by enabling TV viewers to capture short video clips from television to instantly share them on social media. Similar to ConnectTV but in Europe.
Campus board
A platform designed and built to connect the London Tech Community.
Gitoon â€" Peer reviewed UGC content platform
