Amazon Web Services (AWS) has selected five regional semi-finalists and a finalist from Asia-Pacific in its fourth annual Start-Up Challenge.
The semi-finalists feature two Australian companies — LabSlice and Kaggle, as well as organisations from India and Japan.
Regional semi-finalists will receive $ US2500 in AWS service credits, while global finalists will receive $US10,000 in credits and a trip to Palo Alto in California for the final judging and awards ceremony.
The regional semi-finalists from Asia Pacific are:
- LabSlice — an Australian business that allows businesses to create demos, evaluations and training environments which are stored in the AWS cloud and can be easily shared.
- Kaggle — an Australian business that provides statistical/analytics outsourcing on the AWS cloud via global data modelling competitions. Businesses and researchers can upload datasets and problems, allowing data scientists to submit solutions and compete for prizes.
- Mediology — an Indian business that provides software-as-a-service solution on the AWS cloud to enable print publishers to digitise print content, add social media interactivity and distribute the content via web and mobile devices.
- Dialify — an Indian business that builds applications and social games on theAWS cloud, with dynamic audio interfaces for delivery over telecommunication networks in India.
- Cinemacraft — a Japanese company that provides a single platform for mobile and IPTV services on the AWS cloud, enabling the delivery of high quality live video or video on demand on networks such as 2.5G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi and broadband.
In addition, Mediology, a start-up company from India, has qualified as one of the seven global finalists. Global finalists are chosen after several rounds of evaluation and judging from entries submitted across 22 countries.
Contestants are evaluated based on the originality and creativity, the likelihood of long-term success and scalability, as well as how they address a need in the marketplace, and the degree to which the business implements and integrates pay-as-you-go technology platform and services.
The global grand prize winner will be awarded US$50,000 cash, US$50,000 in AWS service credits, premium support services and technical mentorship from Amazon Web Services for one year, as well as a possible investment offer from Amazon.
Grand finals will take place on 8 December 2010.