NEXT Elevator Pitch: Shortlist Announcement!

The jury of the large start-up competition for the NEXT Conference has identified the 12 finalists for the NEXT Elevator Pitch. The 12 member jury comprising representatives from the venture capital scene such as Mike Butcher, Stefan Glaenzer and Sarik Weber, plus our very own COO Joana Picq, chose their favourite three from the 30 start-ups which had been selected by the community. Sarik Weber, co-founder of Hanse Ventures and jury member, states: ?The high level of professionalism and the diversity of applications did not make our decision easy.?

The 12 start-ups which received the most votes from the jury will present their businesses on May 17 at the NEXT Elevator Pitch taking place during the NEXT Conference. Hermione Way (The Next Web) will moderate the NEXT Elevator Pitch and the subsequent award ceremony.

The winner will receive a scholarship for a semester at the Founder Institute Berlin and an individual coaching workshop from Hanse Ventures, with a total worth of ? 6,000.

The 12 Finalists

egoArchive: Gerald B�ck?s start-up becomes a personal memory for users. egoArchive saves every website that a user visits as a screenshot and searchable text which is then stored in a personal archive. egoArchive becomes a personal search engine, which changes the way we search, remember and manage information.

Halalati: Halalati helps companies and social media agencies to create and manage viral apps to put on facebook fan pages. Halalati is presented by CEO Thomas Langenberg.

joinbox: A social aggregator which brings together web news, social network updates and e-mails from different services, all on a single website. The user can check out their information with one login. joinbox is presented at the NEXT Elevator by co-founder Konrad Mazanowski.

Newshype: This aggregator for the German blogosphere collects the blog articles which are most often discussed and linked to. Additionally, it makes discussions between different blogs visible and due to this, it helps users to discover new interesting blogs. Co-founder Jannis Kucharz will presentNewshype at the NEXT Elevator Ptich.

niriu: Under the motto ?support your hood?, niriu offers online neighbourhood help. This start-up aims to encourage the willingness to help in neighbourhoods as well as support local businesses to interact with their environment. niriu will be presented at the NEXT Elevator Pitch by co-founder Babak Ghanadian.

replydone: Using replydone, companies can save time replying to e-mail inquiries. The replydone system analyses incoming e-mails and helps to write a response. Replydone makes appropriate text suggestions on the basis of e-mails which have already been sent. replydone will be presented by cofounder Ben Freundorfer.

Scitotec: Scitotec simplifies the handling of business information. This start-up offers companies comprehensive solutions for integration of data, determining and improving data quality as well as increasing the capacity of information databases. Scitotec will be presented by Benjamin Beck.

Shopgate: Shopgate offers mobile shopping solutions. CEO Andrea Anderheggen?s vision for Shopgate is to connect mobile shopping with the offline marketing world such as catalogues, posters, advertisements and television adverts using mobile POS terminals.

Spoovel: Spoovel brings local retailers and their customers closer together. Offers which passersby recognize can be published on Spoovel by the users themselves or by shop owners. Users can subscribe to certain topics on Spoovel and be notified when a company publishes a new relevant offer. Founder Florian Eisenmenger will present Spoovel at the NEXT Elevator Pitch.

storytude: Storytude is an iPhone app, which connects audio stories with real places in Germany. Users can download thematic city tours or fictional stories. It works on a GPS-function basis according to the place where the action is taking place. Storytude?s co-founder Lydia Horn will present the start-up at the NEXT Elevator Pitch.

Trust You: Trust You?s CEO Benjamin Jost?s vision is to aggregate and structure worldwide opinions of local data and products in the form of comments, reviews, tweets and opinions to create the biggest opinion database. Using Trust You analytics, companies can then access the collected data.

wahwah.fm: Using wahwah.fm, users can share the playlist that they are listening to on their smartphone in real time with others. In this way, wahwah.fm also acts as a personal radio station and as a recommendation platform for others. Founder and CEO Philipp Eibach will present wahwah.fm at the NEXT Elevator Ptich.

The NEXT Elevator Pitch will take place at 9 a.m. on May 17 on the NEXT Stage.

Zhang Ziyi Carmen Electra Aubrey ODay Ehrinn Cummings Michelle Behennah