Barcelona, 19th, 2009. Spanish company Bmat come out winner of the first edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Competition, the first ever truly international tournament that brought together at HiT Barcelona - World Innovation Summit some of the business plans/early-stage companies with the highest growth potential in the world.
Bmat is based in Barcelona and specializes in the development of music and audio software that understands music and organises in a human readable and intuitive way a service that tracks content everywhere. Bmat uses advanced analysis tools to create new intuitive possibilities to interact with digital music. Bmat offers a sound search engine, an intelligent player that adapts music to the mood of the user, a system for recommending music based on the personal profile of each user or or detecting whether a song is an original or a remix, a live or studio recording. The winner of the competition won a 50.000 Euros awards and the inclusion in business development programmes offered by Barcelona Activa and 22@.
The second prize went to The Broccoli Project from South Africa with a 20,000 Euros awards and third prize to Polyskin from India with a 10,00 Euros award. The Broccoli Project is a management program designed for NGOs to help people without resources. Based on a model similar to customer fidelity incentives and relying on a user profile management programme and a powerful biometric database, the platform creates an assignment schedule rewarding those people enrolled in healthcare programmes, actively looking for a job or trying to school their children who show the most positive attitude and outlook and helping them cover their basic needs. The Broccoli Project was nominated to participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Competition by the Economic and Social Development Agency in Cape Town (South Africa).
Polyskin developed an effective and affordable artificial skin substitute to use for the treatment of burns or skin lesions. India and other developping countries currently lack affordable solutions for the treatment of burns and other skin lesions as existing treatments (skin grafts, bioactive membranes etc.) are highly technical and expensive, thus limiting their use. Polyskin addresses this issue and offers an innovative solution using biodegradable polymer particules, encapsulated in a pharmaceutical medium, which bind together at room temperature and in one single procedure to form a biological membrane, allowing for immediate use as skin substitute in treatment of burns and other lesions.
There are many benefits to Polyskin’s solution: it is easy to use, decreases fluid loss, decreases the risk of infection, improves healing of infected wounds and skin generation, making it the most cost-effective burn and lesion treatment. Polyskin is a spin-off of the India National Institute of Immunology to participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Competition by the Indian National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board.
Two 5,000 Euros prizes were awarded to Echopixel Technologies and The Broccoli Project for best presentation and best social value. Echopixel Technologies is based in Mexico and is dedicated to improving patient care by providing innovative stereoscopic, three-dimensional imaging solutions that are non-invasive to better detect, diagnose and treat diseade.
The first edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Competition included 28 participants representing 21 countries. 24 of these projects were selected by a committee formed by some of the most renowned ‘Entrepreneurship Centres (business schools, universities, technology parks and incubators) in the world. The other four finalists came from existing entrepreneur development programmes: 3 from the Emprendedor XXI Award, promoted by “la Caixa” and ENISA, and one from the XV Fòrum d’Investment d’ACC1Ó.
In addition to the awards, all participating companies participating in the competition will be offered a year of free office space in the technological district 22 @ Barcelona to help them establish their European headquarters.
For Jerry Engel, the quality of the participating projects was “an example of the innovation taking place around the world. HiT Barcelona has proven to be a strategic meeting for high growth business plans. “
About HiT Barcelona
Hit Barcelona is a unique world innovation summit that brings together well known gurus in innovation, entrepreneurs, and investors to promote strategic business projects. Its main focus is major growth sectors such as Telecom, Cleantech and Healthcare. HiT Barcelona combines high level plenary sessions with meeting sessions where the most innovative projects in the world are presented. During this summit, the Global Entrepreneurship Competition will take place, where leading entrepreneurs present their business plans in this first ever international competition.
HiT Barcelona is an initiative of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, the Barcelona City Council (via their Finance, Economy and Innovation Departments), the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and La Caixa. It is organised by the Fira de Barcelona and the Barcelona Pla Estratègic. The first edition of the event is expected to bring about 2,000 delegates to Barcelona from the 17th to the 19th of June, 2009.
