DFJ and Cisco Global Business Plan Competition
2009 Finalists - Where are they now?
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Since its September 2009 launch, 80legs has grown by marketing itself as a cutting-edge web-crawling service, offering an expanded product line and providing quality customer service. The company has several dozen customers, including the likes of Intel, Adify and Radian6, and continues to add more each month. 80legs has started to position itself as a leading provider in the “big data” space, thanks to its ability to dramatically reduce the barriers to accessing Internet-wide data. While the steady growth in revenue is always great, the team is also enjoying building a great company and helping so many of their customers! |
University of Michigan, Georgia
Institute of Technology
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Audiallo is a fabless IC analog semiconductor manufacturer
bringing ultra low power analog processing to the audio space. In the past year Audiallo has:
The PocketPico quickly and easily measures electrical current in the pico
to milliamp ranges for use in electronics, photonics, chemicals, and
materials, and more. PocketPico is currently in Beta Test
and will be released in the 6 weeks. More information can be found at www.pocketpico.com.
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UC San Diego
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Biological Dynamics is an early stage cancer diagnostics company which has developed a novel method for isolating and detecting cell free circulating nucleic acids (CFC-DNA) from undiluted whole blood in less than 15 minutes. There is now a growing consensus that CFC-DNA is an effective biomarker for the early detection of most cancers and for disease prognosis, monitoring, and recurrence. Biological Dynamics novel method of isolation and detection will enable the development of a point of care (POC) device capable of identification, quantification and purification of CFC-DNA. Biological Dynamics recently completed its first round of financing. |
Stanford University
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Driptech makes affordable drip irrigation specifically designed for small farmers in developing countries. Since participating in the 2009 DFJ Cisco Global Business Plan Competition they are on track to reach millions of people who have previously been unable to use water-efficient drip irrigation. After achieving initial sales in India and China, founder Peter Frykman has raised a round of seed capital and is further building his team. BusinessWeek magazine featured Driptech as one of the top 25 Most Intriguing New Businesses of 2009, and the Tech Awards honored the organization as an Economic Development Laureate for using technology to benefit humanity. Driptech has expanded into a larger facility in Mountain View, CA, to accommodate the rapid scale-up of its manufacturing operation. |
University of Southern
California
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Five Minutes is one of the world's most innovative and fastest growing social gaming companies. Our mission is to create social happiness, by being able to make any "five minutes" in one’s life worthwhile. We thrive to offer unique and exciting social game experiences to connect everyone together. Milestones reached in the past year:
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University of Virginia, Darden
School of Business
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After ending the year 2009 with some astounding successes, Husk Power Systems (HPS) has ramped up the stride in 2010. The year began with closing of a $1.25 million pre-series A round of funding in convertible notes from a syndicate of investors – Acumen Fund, Oasis Funds, LGT Venture Philanthropy, DFJ and CISCO. International Finance Corporation has approved an additional $350,000 in the pre-series A round on similar terms. HPS has electrified more than 90 villages thus far and is in the rapid expansion mode to take the number to more than 200 villages (through 80 plants) by end of the year.
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Moscow Institute of Physics and
Technology
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In the past year iCore has reached several milestones as we near the launch of our commercial release. In addition to developing a final version for the Windows platform, we have also conducted deep marketing research to validate the market needs for our unique virtualization solutions. iCore Software offers users isolated environments on their PCs within which other programs can run. For example, users can deploy iCore to:
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LBS College of Engineering
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Innoz is one of the most innovative and exciting
companies working on rich mobile and web application including SMYSGYAN (SMS
driven knowledge information on demand service) and TRANZ (a mobile
application that lets you share photos and videos with your phonebook friends
on your GPRS/3G phone).
Milestones include:
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MENGTIAN BIOTECH
Fudan University
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In the past year, Mengtian Biotech has been continuing its development of environmental protective flocculating agents, which are used to reduce the waste water created in the paper-making industry. Mengtian Biotech’s agents are cost effective and eco-friendly.
2. Significant
potential customer interest generated
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University of Chicago, Booth
School of Business
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In the last year, Mercardi has made considerable progress with
helping people redeem value from their unused gift cards. Our e-commerce
marketplace is up and running. We now facilitate -
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Sellers exchanging their gift cards for
cash
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Bargain hunters buying discounted gift cards
In addition to being a secondary marketplace for gift cards we are
also a service that enables non-profit organizations to accept gift card
donations. We have built a turnkey fundraising platform and are actively
working with local, regional, and national nonprofit organizations.
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Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
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Powersave is an innovative and hi-tech platform that monitors and measures electric energy consumption in corporate buildings and homes. In the past year the company has established key partnerships with major players in the Brazilian market:
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Properat
Stanford University
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Andrew is now
the co-founder of OliveWoo (http://olivewoo.com) the first dating site
that actually wants you to go on dates. Not simply for first dates, OliveWoo is the place where couples can discover and share date
ideas, as well as look at a timeline of their dating history. Singles are
matched with other singles based on their date preferences and community
input.
Evan is currently working on a stealth startup that you can expect to hear about in the coming months. For more information and updates, check out http://merchcraft.com. |
(fka Digiceipt)
Cornell University
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SeamlessReceipts enables retailers to interact with customers through email and social media. SeamlessReceipts recently launched its flagship product, which uses email receipts to engage consumers after a sale. Accomplishments over the past year:
Visit www.seamlessreceipts.com to learn more. |
University of Maryland
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Trauma Solutions has developed a completely synthetic, polymer-based material capable of rapidly stopping blood loss. Similar to biological-based products, this material is able to activate and accelerate the body’s natural clotting process yet at a fraction of the price. The material also drastically reduces the risk of severe complications associated with biological-based hemostatic materials. A hemostatic product, based on our technology, is currently undergoing preclinical animal trials for FDA approval. Future efforts will focus on the development of a drug-eluting hemostatic material capable of providing simulataneous and controlled delivery of therapeutics. Trauma Solutions is committed to conducting cutting edge research to develop the next generation of hemostatic materials which will save millions of lives around the world. For more information contact Brendan Casey at bcasey1@umd.edu. |
Tel-Aviv University
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YubiTech is developing a proprietary virtualization technology
that enables you to access your desktop application (web or non web) from any
SmartPhone OS, with more than 90% cost saving (no development cost) and in a
record time to market (few hours or days). In the past year, YubiTech has:
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Developed a drag ‘n drop wizard that enables
System integrators to mobilize Enterprise applications (ERP, CRP and
proprietary)
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Completed its first pilot with Microsoft
Dynamics ERP, in order to enable their customers access to the software from
different SmartPhones OS (such as BlackBerry, iPhone etc)
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Raised $550K from Yozmot-Granot Incubator
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UC Irvine
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ZeroWatt Technologies continued to progress on delivering disruptive low power analog-to-digital
converters, which has far-reaching benefits on battery life, performance, and
cost of many electronic devices. Accomplished milestones include: |
