• And The Winner Of TechCrunch Disrupt NYC Is…Getaround!

    Leena Rao

    Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

    Wednesday, May 25th, 2011


    Three days and 32 startup pitches later, the winner of TechCrunch Disrupt has been determined. Out of the 30 startups and two audience choice winners, we whittled the list down to six finalists, which include Billguard, ccLoop, Do@, Getaround, InvoiceASAP, and Sonar. Without further ado, the two runners-up are Billguard and Sonar (that’s the first time we’ve had two runners-up). And the winner is….Getaround!

    Watch Getaround win the cup at the award presentation:

    Here’s what Getaround told us backstage after they won the cup.

    Getaround is a car rental market place where you can rent a car by the day, hour or week through a smartphone app. Getaround’s all inclusive package, which includes insurance, 24 hour roadside assistance, a Getaround car-kit, iPhone app and a web app makes it easy for people to conveniently car share anywhere. The company’s founder said today that currently the startup has signed up 1,600 cars for sharing since its launch yesterday, which is 20 percent of car-sharing giant Zipcar’s fleet of 8,000 cars.

    Getaround was a hit with the judges when the startup pitched the idea on Tuesday; with most of the judges wishing they could have invested in the company. Getaround has received seed funding from General Catalyst Partners, Barney Pell and others.

    In addition to a $50,000 grand prize, the company has just been handed the Disrupt Cup, taking over possession from Disrupt San Francisco winner Qwiki.

    You can check out the coverage of Getaround, Sonar and Billguard below:

    Getaround, The AirBnb For Cars, Finally Launches

    Sonar Finds You The Most Relevant People In The Room

    BillGuard Will Track Hidden Fees And Billing Errors On Credit Card Bills

    In addition to the Disrupt Cup, some special awards were also given:

    Audience Choice Winner: Getaround.

    The Microsoft Bing Decision Award: do@. This award goes to the Startup Battlefield contestant who is helping users make good decisions on the fly. Do@ will win a lunch meeting with Qi Lu, President of Online Services and SEO consultation with the Bing Webmaster Team; and Microsoft will help plan do@’s launch party.

    A special thanks to our sponsor partners for the conference: Sprint, Google, Drund, Qualcomm, Palantir, TokBox, iContact BrightIdea, Mashery, Twilio, Bing, GE, Media Temple, MailChimp, Zecco, SecondMarket, and Red Bull. You can find a complete list of our sponsors here.

    Qwiki TechCrunch Disrupt Cup Video 2011 from Qwiki on Vimeo.

    Company: Getaround
    Website: getaround.com
    Launch Date: September 10, 2009
    Funding: $19M

    Getaround provides a peer-to-peer carsharing marketplace that enables car owners to rent their cars - from Priuses to Teslas - to a community of trusted drivers by hour, day, or week using just their smartphones. Car owners invest huge amounts of time and money into an asset they barely use. The average car is idle 92% of the time, while potential drivers walk past block after block of underutilized cars. We are here to connect the dots… to help people...

    → Learn more
    Company: BillGuard
    Website: billguard.com
    Launch Date: April 11, 2010
    Funding: $13M

    BillGuard is people-powered antivirus for bills. BillGuard, a personal finance security company recognized by Online Banking Report as one of the top online banking innovations of all time, has developed a groundbreaking new approach to identifying deceptive, erroneous and unauthorized charges on consumer credit card and debit card bills. BillGuard uses crowdsourced big-data analytics to harness the collective knowledge of millions of consumers reporting billing complaints online and to their merchants and banks. The free service scans user’s e-statements...

    → Learn more
    Company: Sonar.me
    Website: sonar.me
    Launch Date: 2010
    Funding: $200k

    Sonar is a a mobile application that shows you how you are connected to the other people in the room. Sonar combines publicly available profile and location information to help you discover business contacts, colleagues, old friends and new ones at conferences, cafes, and bars. Sonar enables you take your online identity offline, to help you meet real people, in the real world.

    → Learn more