CODE_n12 Award goes to myTaxi

March 9, 2012 - PRLog -- Hanover, CeBIT, March 8, 2012 – For weeks, 50 young entrepreneurs from every corner of the globe have been vying for pole position on March 8. Who will stand on the winner’s podium and claim the CODE_n12 Award? Who will scoop up the €25,000 prize, plus two years of mentoring from experienced business leaders? The jury has made its decision. And the winner is … myTaxi, created by Intelligent Apps. Explaining the decision, Ulrich Dietz, chairman of the jury and initiator of CODE_n, states: “We’re awarding the prize to myTaxi because this solution perfectly reflects the contest concept of Shaping Mobile Life.” The top 10 solutions included six innovations from Germany, and one from Finland, Russia, Sweden and Singapore, respectively. Launched by GFT Technologies, the CODE_n initiative will be continued and is set to include new categories.

The jury was particularly impressed by the speed at which the young entrepreneurs at Intelligent Apps, a Hamburg-based startup, are revolutionizing the German cab market. Before myTaxi, all cab rides were coordinated through call centers. Now, they can be coordinated via smartphone. Over 8,000 cab drivers already take orders through the myTaxi app. Customers simply track when their cab will arrive on their smartphone in real time. And in keeping with modern social networks, after the ride, they can rate their cab driver.

“myTaxi is a wonderful example of young and talented IT experts hitting upon a winning idea that shapes modern mobile living – and then setting up a company with every potential to go places,” states GFT CEO Ulrich Dietz. “In collaboration with our strategic partners, Fujitsu and Ernst & Young, we want to support this growing business as it enters international markets. Who can tell? Perhaps it will become a new ‘Made in Germany’ success story.

Top 10 covers a wide variety of innovations

After announcing the winner, the best submissions to the CODE_n contest were presented. These included four entrants from outside Germany. CorruptionTrak was developed in Singapore and works like a digital alarm bell for corruption activity. Transfluent, an app from Finland, provides fully automated translation services for Tweets and Facebook messages. T-Smart LLC, a company from Russia, gained an award for ARNEGA, a portable telemedicine technology kit. Augmented IQ, a technical solution developed by the Swedish company Appear, sends large volumes of real-time, context-based information to displays on headsets worn by security staff. This allows people on patrol to work more efficiently and in a more targeted manner.

One of the most inspiring CODE_n finalists was orderbird, a startup from Berlin that has developed a payment system for restaurant and catering businesses, which  runs entirely on iPhones. Another top solution from the German capital came from Logentheater GmbH, which won an award for MAP MY STORY, a digital social storytelling platform that links places with stories. It works by drawing on user-generated content.

The city of Munich also supplied two top 10 candidates for the CODE_n contest: DriveNow, a premium carsharing service backed by BMW and SIXT, and the financial services solution yavalu. This do-it-yourself portfolio management solution allows users to plan and monitor private financial investments. The final entrant from Germany to make  it to the top 10 was synchronite from Mannheim. This collaborative Web-based service synchronizes browsers with other users’ browsers, handy in areas such as providing online shoppers with live support.

“All CeBIT visitors who came to our innovation exhibition in hall 16 this week and got to know the 50 CODE_n finalists have witnessed for themselves why it’s worth investing in novel ideals,” states Ulrich Dietz. “It’s fascinating to see how flexible and dynamic young companies are in implementing their ideas. More established companies can learn a lot from this.”

More plans in the pipeline for CODE_n

The bestowal of the CODE_n12 Award by no means marks the end of the innovation initiative. Quite the opposite: There are already plans to introduce new categories, to foster yet more up-and-coming IT talent. One idea is to launch the CODE_n Lab, a versatile working environment consisting of several rooms to facilitate a completely new approach to innovation. It is also planned to promote more networking within the CODE_n community. The doors will also be opened to other companies that are interested in investing in the CODE_n initiative and participating in this new kind of innovation forum.

The CODE_n initiative was created by GFT Technologies in September 2011. Ernst & Young, Fujitsu, Deutsche Messe, BITKOM and the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe are all strategic partners in the initiative. The jury was made up of Ulrich Dietz (GFT), Gabriele Fischer (brand eins), Lars Hinrichs (HackFwd), Carsten Knop (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Paulus Neef (PQuadra), Dr. Joseph Reger (Fujitsu), Jens-Uwe Sauer (Seedmatch) and Prof. Peter Weibel (ZKM).

Press material for download:  http://www.code-n.org/de/newsroom/bilder/cebit-highlight-...

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CODE_n is an international initiative for fresh ideas in the field of IT and the internet. The network aims to bring together the sector’s brightest minds and smartest ideas, to provide ongoing support and to harness this force field for the seeding and fast breeding of new innovations. CODE_n stands for “Code of the New”, the DNA of innovation. The initiator is GFT Technologies, an international supplier of IT solutions and services. The partners include Deutsche Messe, Ernst & Young, Fujitsu Technologies Solutions, BITKOM and the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM). The media partners of CODE_n are brand eins, Computerwoche, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, MOBILE BUSINESS, t3n and VentureCapital Magazin. In 2012, CODE_n will be presenting the first CODE_n Award to a highly innovative IT-based solution for mobile life. The winner will receive prize money of EUR 25,000 as well as coaching from the initiative’s strategic partner over a two-year period. www.code-n.org.