Seedcamp, the European seed funding network and startup accelerator, came through San Francisco this week as part of its annual multi-city trip to the United States. On Tuesday afternoon in downtown SF, 18 Seedcamp startups pitched a roomful of industry investors, advisors, executives, and general startup enthusiasts.
Each company was solid — you can find the full list here — but I pulled aside five of the most compelling startups for one-on-one interviews to get a bit more insight on what they do. These startups hail from all over the EU and they each have very different target markets, from amateur sports teams to money-transferring jetsetter types. But the common thread is that in their demos, they each presented unique and well-designed solutions to specific and very real problems. Check them out below:
Pult, based in Tallinn, Estonia, lets you stream content from cloud services on the web such as YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and others to any connected device with a screen — without requiring any cables or special hardware whatsoever. Basically, Pult’s co-founders Andrus Raudsalu and Veiko Jaeaeger told me, it is like Boxee — but without the box. Next, the company is looking to work with specialized and premium content providers so that its technology can integrate with those services. The service is available in beta mode at Pult.io.
The London-based Transferwise allows you to convert money between currencies and send international money transfers at super low costs online. The company, co-founded by Kristo Kaarmann and Taavet Hinrikus, launched in January 2011 and currently deals in Euros and British pounds — as of today, $10 million in payments have already been brokered by the service. Transferwise is looking to expand to the United States in the coming months.
Holvi, based in Helsinki, Finland, is making a software program that functions as a checking account, bookkeeping service, and fundraising app — all in one. It’s built to be used by organizations such as charitable associations, social clubs, event planners, and sport teams: Groups that need to manage money by necessity, but are not companies with dedicated finance and accounting arms. The service is not open to the public yet, and at launch will only be accessible to users in the EU, but founder Kristoffer Lawson demoed a slick, clean, and fully featured service. Holvi is definitely one to watch.
Paris, France-based Teleportd is a search engine and licensing platform for mobile photo services such as Instagram, Twitter, yFrog, Picplz, and others. The service lets people search through all the public photos added to these services, and reach out to the photographers to make licensing arrangements — essentially, “a ShutterStock/Getty for the Instagram generation.” Gabriel Hubert, who co-founded Teleportd, says the company is currently in the process of raising seed funding.
Based in London, Bluefields is a web program and mobile app aimed at amateur sports teams. Bluefields lets teams manage the scheduling of practices and games, collect money, and communicate with each other online. According to co-founder Andrew Crump, 60,000 players from 600 athletic clubs have joined the site since Bluefields first launched in August.
Seedcamp is an organization to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe by putting the next generation of developers and entrepreneurs in front of a network of company builders; including seed investors, serial entrepreneurs, product experts, HR specialists, marketers, lawyers, recruiters, journalists and venture capitalists. Seedcamp acts as a micro seed fund to invest in startup companies. Seedcamp invests all throughout the year, during Mini Seedcamp events that are held all over Europe. During its flagship event Seedcamp Week, which takes...
Pult allows you to stream your content to any connected screen using smartphone as remote control and identity carrier. Current version of Pult allows streaming from web services - Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Slideshare etc. Pult is working with content industry to offer Pult as content delivery platform. Pult can be used to make pay-TV channels portable and to access personal VOD services on any screen. There is growing number of connected screens around us like modern internet enabled TV...
Holvi completely replaces your bank account with a service that offers a smart checking account for group activities. The account and budget is shared by your whole team, offering full transparency. Full bank payments can be made, both in and out. Uniquely a very wide range of information can be attached to all payments. This means accounting and money management happens completely automatically. Finally you can easily collect money to support your activity. Holvi is regulated by the Finnish Financial...
TransferWise lets expats, foreign students and businesses move money globally. The firm’s pricing and operating model are a substantial departure from standard practice in the money transfer sector, providing customers with a lower-cost alternative to traditional means of moving money internationally. TransferWise was founded in London in March 2010 by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kaarmann. Taavet was part of the small team that started Skype in 2003 and has recently worked with a number of startups as an angel investor...
The platform for sports teams and players, that is capturing the attention of this 2.3 billion strong, massively valuable, audience. ($20b+ US 2010) Where every player has an online profile integrated with Facebook; Every team and league can reach its players in one place; Every Sports Game also has a home online; and, Where sports photos are no longer stuck in email threads.
Nitrogram = Explosive Analytics and Engagement Platform on Instagram. Brands use Nitrogram to discover, monitor and boost their community on Instagram (currently 100M+ active users) With Nitrogram: Measure, analyze and benchmark your audience on Instagram (followers, engagement). Get recommendations to increase the performance of your posts. Track Instagram photos posted on a #hashtag related to your brand. Identify your brands’ advocates and measure their impact (likes generated, potential impressions). Interact with fans or followers. Manage all of your Instagram accounts from a...
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