Israeli start-ups are preparing for a June competition that could lead to the title World's Smartest Start-Up. The competition, SmartCamp, is run by IBM.
SmartCamp competitions will take place in seven cities around the world: San Francisco, Boston, Paris, London, Dublin, Stockholm - and Petach Tikva. Companies that win in their respective countries will advance to the global competition.
The final stage of the competition will take place in Dublin in November.
Start-ups that were founded in the past three years, are under private ownership, and have a turnover of less than $1 million per year are invited to apply. The competition seeks companies that are “instrumented, interconnected and intelligent,” and that “fundamentally change the end-user experience or ecosystem.”
The competition aims to help start-up companies break into expanding fields such as energy, water, and health services. “To build a smarter planet requires making its systems, such as cities and transportation, smarter as well,” explains the IBM website.
Participants will be granted access to some of IBM's local investors and entrepreneurs. In previous years, several companies that did not win first prize from IBM received investment offers from IBM contacts they met during the competition.