4YFN and IBM team up to organize a global competition to launch startup tech innovations to the market

• Participants will have 50 days to create game changing mobile applications aligned to three Internet of Things themes: Smart Homes & Buildings, Connected Travel & Transportation, Smarter Healthcare
• The semi-finalists of the Global Mobile Innovators Tournament will have the opportunity to present their projects at the regional Demo Days: Bangalore, Los Angeles, Toronto, London and Amsterdam
• Finalists will be able to develop their products further with the support of leaders in the industry who will also be partners of this competition
• The Tournament finale will be held at the next edition of 4YFN, to take place from 22-24 February, 2016 in Barcelona

September 8, 2015

4 Years From Now (4YFN), the business platform for the growing international community of tech startups, backed by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, announced today that it has signed a collaboration agreement with IBM to organise the first Global Mobile Innovators Tournament.

This global competition for developers and startups involves 15 virtual challenges, 5 regional Demo Days and a grand finale over a 5 month period, with the aim to promote the creation and development of innovative solutions all over the world.

The tournament will be aligned to three categories related to the Internet of Things:

• Smart Home & Buildings: centred on adapting technology to the home in order to make day-to-day activities and tasks more convenient and efficient.
• Connected Travel & Transportation: a category including projects incorporating technology into the transport sector in order to make it safer and more stable.
• Smarter Healthcare: featuring solutions that employ mobile technology to create a higher quality health system and increase citizens’ quality of life.

The developers and startups interested in participating can now register their interest andstart to familiarise themselves with IBM Bluemix, IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service that makes it possible to create, develop and manage applications directly from the Cloud. From 16 September to 4 November participants can register for one or more of the challenges and begin working on their proposals. In these efforts they will be able to draw upon the support of operators to facilitate access to their APIs, making it possible to work in a real environment.

“At IBM we understand and are committed to enabling entrepreneurs and developers with the skills and resources they need to take full advantage of emerging technologies like Internet of Things mobile innovation,” said IBM General Manager for Cloud Ecosystem and Developers, Sandy Carter.  “Working with 4YFN, we’ve built a tournament designed to propel the ideas of mobile innovators into reality, transforming industry, and creating innovative solutions for how businesses and individuals interact with the world around them.”

When this work phase ends the judges will make an initial selection of 75 semi-finalists. From 16 to 18 November the members of the selected teams will be notified about where they will need to report in order to pass to the next stage. A total of five cities – Bangalore, Los Angeles, Toronto, London and Amsterdam- will host the respective regional Demo Days, at which the semi-finalists will present their projects before judging panels, which will decide the finalists.

The final

The tournament finale will be held at the next edition of 4YFN, the international tech startups forum organised by Mobile World Capital Barcelona and GSMA, scheduled to take place from 22-24 February, 2016 in Barcelona, coinciding with the Mobile World Congress. On each day of the three-day forum the projects from each of the three categories – Smart Home & Buildings, Connected Travel and Smarter Healthcare, respectively – will be exhibited. The finalists will also have the opportunity to actively participate in 4YFN, whose 2015 edition broke records, with more than 8,000 attendees from all over the world and over 5,000 meetings between startups and international investment funds.

“At 4YFN we support entrepreneurial sector through diferent programmes and events committed to forging links at the local and International levels”, said Aleix Valls, Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Mobile World Capital Barcelona. “We are proud to merge our vision with IBM with the aim of empowering startup and developers communities around high-end accelerating technology, best-in-class IT infrastructure, an open culture of shared knowledge and a strong sense of global community. With this partnership we will initiate a new hands-on learning and competitive experience”.

The awards

All participants will receive discounts on admission to 4YFN in Barcelona, in addition to free access to the IBM Bluemix platform during their participation. The competition’s finalists will receive four invites to 4YFN, lodging for the duration of the event and return flights to Barcelona for up to two people per team, the shared use of space to display their projects, and access to meetings with investors. There is also the potential for winners to receive revenue from the commercialisation of their applications.

Full details on the Global Mobile Innovators Tournament are available online: www.glovators.io