Searching for the future leaders in Digital Tech; Call for Applications for 2014 Digital Tech Summit held in London, April 23-24, 2014: Deadline February 16

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Geneva, Switzerland – Brussels, Belgium – London, Great Britain (PRWEB UK) 18 December 2013

Co President of the Summit, Baruk Pilo from ICON Corporate Finance in London said: “We will be focusing on four major sectors within the Summit where we foresee new disruptive technologies emerging: Financial Technologies; Security and Cyber security; Web, Mobility and Cloud, SaaS and Big Data. Digital Tech is a very exciting sector and in the future we will be seeing new huge business opportunities in very different fields such as: connected consumer objects, civilian drones, mobile payments, new remittance services – the list is endless. Our goal for this event is to select the top 20 European startups in these four hot sectors and invite corporate companies and Strategic Investors to deliver their perspectives for disruptive technologies and new business opportunities. It will be an opportunity for Entrepreneurs to meet tier one investors and potential strategic partners and for large enterprises and VC’s to engage with the best in class European, Israeli and Russian start-ups.”

Company Registration – why should you register?

No charge to apply
No charge for selected companies to attend the event and present – selection is merit only based
Companies are selected by an expert selection committee, according to their potential market impact
Selected companies will present to a group of 100+ global investment professionals, advisors and corporates.
Companies regardless of selection will be seen by a group of top level investors (the selection committee) and have the opportunity to be included in the delegate binder to further promote their offering.

Registration

Applicants can register for the Summit at http://www.digitaltechsummit.eu

As part of the process applicants must submit a corporate presentation together with the registration form. The deadline for applications is February 16.

Selection Criteria

Applicants will be assessed on the uniqueness of their technology, the strength of their business model, vision, and capability to execute on the business plan and the quality and track record of their management. Submissions will be reviewed by the selection committee, which is comprised of senior business leaders from various backgrounds including venture capital, technology, research and economic promotion.

Rewards for Finalists

The selected 20 finalists will each have an opportunity to present their business plans to senior partners, vice presidents and CEOs from the global venture capital and technology industry, as well as service providers and academics. In addition, they will benefit from networking opportunities, local and international media exposure and potential opportunities to secure funding.

Previous Summit attendees have included senior representatives of most major investment firms and corporates:

Almaz Capital, Ambient Sound Investments, Anecova, Atlantic Bridge Investments, Balderton Capital, CDC Innovations, Clipperton Finance, Conor Venture Partners, DFJ Esprit, DN Capital, eBay, Endeavour Vision, EQT, FDI Internet & Mobile, Fidelity Growth Partners, Finnvera Venture Capital, GIMV, Goetz Partners, Google, Growthpoint Technology Partners, Highland Capital Partners, Hummingbird Ventures, Idinvest Partners, iGlobe Partners, Index Ventures, Intesa Sanpaolo, IQ Capital Partners, Iris Capital, Kreos Capital, Nauta Capital, Northzone Ventures, Open Ocean Capital, Open Text, Opera Capital Partners, Partech, Pictet, Quantam Wave Capital, Restoration Partners, Richmond Park Partners, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Runa Capital, Sardis Capital, Schroder & Co Bank, Scottish Equity Partners, Seed Capital Management, Serena Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, Sony Ericsson, Spintop Ventures, Startup.co.uk, Sunstone Capital, Ventech, Vodafone Ventures, Wellington Partners.

Many companies that have presented at previous Summits have either been acquired or raised more significant funding. Some notable examples include:

    Shutl acquired by Ebay (2013)
    Aloqua acquired by Motorla (2010)
    Brands for Friends acquired by Ebay (2010) for €150million
    Procedural acquired by Esri (2011)
    MexAd acquired by DataXu (2012)
    Sapato.ru acquired by OZON.ru (2012)
    More than $ 300million raised in funding for companies including:
        iZettle, badoo, Klarna, Mister Spex, Silk, StrikeAd, Wrapp,…

About the Tech Tour

The Tech Tour was founded in Geneva in 1998 in response to the growing interest in emerging technology companies in various European regions. The Tech Tour is an independent, not-for-profit organization composed of key contributors to the high technology industry. The organization recognizes that continued prosperity in Europe lies in its ability to transform today’s innovative projects into tomorrow’s global technology leaders.

http://www.techtour.com

About the International Venture Club

The International Venture Club was founded in 2011 as the collaborative platform of leading venture investors promoting successful international investments. Its objectives are to 1) share better practices, 2) build co-investor trust and relations, 3) foster new funding and investment opportunities through joint actions and PR, 4) grow promising companies with corporate partners and co-investors and 5) keep a smart window and support to emerging innovative companies.

http://www.iventureclub.com

Media Contacts:

Tanja Baltus

International Venture Club

+32 (0) 2 643 36 94

tanja(at)iventureclub(dot)com

Laurian Harry

Tech Tour

+41 22 544 60 63

laurian(at)techtour(dot)com

Bond PR

Vanessa Marcie

+44 20 7409 5240

Vanessa(at)bondpr(dot)com







Aarki Releases Update to Its Multiscreen Creative Platform

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Mountain View, Calif. (PRWEB) December 18, 2013

Aarki, a leader in rich media and creative advertising technology, today released the latest version of its multiscreen creative platform Aarki Studio, an HTML5 design and advertising suite.

“We’re thrilled about this update,” said Aarki CEO Sid Bhatt. “This truly gives advertisers and creative teams around the world a one-stop digital advertising platform — allowing them to create rich media ads with Aarki Studio and make real time changes as needed across all devices — mobile, tablet and desktop.”

With Aarki Studio, advertisers can create advertisements across multiple screens and make real time changes to creative assets, which will simultaneously be applied across all ad sizes. These advertisements are designed to be responsive and adjust to the display size on the fly. Aarki Studio supports all IAB Rising Star ad units, as well as easy-to-use rich media animations usable across mobile and desktop. With the latest release, Aarki Studio also provides a single, universal advertising tag. With these combined features, advertisers can run multiple tests across devices in real time to ensure the highest performing ad units rise above the rest.

For more information or to sign up to use Aarki Studio, visit http://www.aarki.com/.

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About Aarki

Aarki is a leader in interactive and creative advertising technology for brands, agencies, ad networks and premium publishers. Aarki (pronounced ar-key) is a Sanskrit word meaning to rise above or elevate. The company’s goal is to ensure customers can rise above their competition through cloud-based technologies that deliver highly engaging, interactive advertisements across all devices. Based in Mountain View, with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Beijing and Manila, Aarki is backed by Walden Venture Capital. For more information, please visit http://www.aarki.com or follow us on Twitter: @aarkimobile.







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CGTrader.com And Staples Present The Best 3D Printable Model

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(PRWEB) December 18, 2013

3D artists had been challenged by CGTrader.com and Staples in the Staples 3D Printing Challenge. Artists were invited to rethink the whole concept of the print-ready 3D models and design models which could be printed out of paper and sold at Staples 3D printing service MyEasy3D.

Designers took innovative approach to create 3D printable models. It was a difficult task to create a 3D printable object which could be printed of paper. However, some of the artists found solutions and submitted brilliant models.

“We are really happy to see such an enthusiasm from our members. Some of the models were more than amazing. Also, it was nice to have such a partner like Staples alongside. They helped 3D artists of our community to become known worldwide,” says Marius Kalytis, CEO of CGTrader.com.

Felix is the author of the best 3D printable model called “The Brain”. He will be awarded with 1,000 EUR prize and a 12 months Designer subscription valued at 900 EUR to MyEasy3D store. The 1st runner-up is Matt Bagshaw, author of “Sleepy Kitten”. He will get 6 months subscription valued at 450 EUR, while the 2nd runner-up is Michelangelo, author of “Gautama Buddha”. He will get 3 months subscription valued at 225 EUR. Therefore, the best 3D printable models will be available not only to the community of 3D artists, but also to the huge clientele of Staples.

Staples launched the online 3D printing service MyEasy3D in September 2013. The service gives Staples clients an opportunity to print a desirable 3D model using MCor paper-based 3D printing technology. MCor Iris 3D printer provides low cost, high-quality eco-friendly 3D printing using paper as the material and printing objects with more than 1 million colors.

About CGTrader.com:

CGTrader is a community-based 3D model marketplace founded in 2011. The company’s vision of democracy and liberating the market has attracted investors and in early 2013 CGTrader raised 185,000 EUR from venture capital fund Practica Capital. The company currently has more than 45,000 3D models uploaded to the digital library and more than 30,000 registered united users from all around the world.







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GREEs Knights & Dragons Tops $5 Million in 30-Day Revenue

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San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) December 17, 2013

GREE today announced that Knights & Dragons, a top-charting game developed by their San Francisco studio in collaboration with Vancouver-based developer IUGO Mobile Entertainment Inc., has recorded more than $ 5 million of revenue in a 30-day period. GREE and IUGO now represent one of the most successful publishing relationships in mobile gaming.

“Hitting the $ 5M in 30 days mark was a goal we set for ourselves back in July and we committed to tremendous growth for Knights & Dragons. Clearly, the teams’ hard work and effort has been successful. Our relationship with IUGO, a leader in building high-quality mobile games, is a great illustration of how publishing can work and is a template for future partnerships,” said Naoki Aoyagi, CEO of GREE International, Inc. “A core part of GREE’s strategy is developing strong publishing partnerships with some of the industry’s top development talent and we aim to keep building more hugely successful relationships like this one.”

“We are very excited to see Knights & Dragons hit this $ 5M milestone. Between that revenue number and the recent Google award, we are confident that we are delivering the game players are looking for. Our goal is to continue to do so both with this game and in the future,” said Hong-Yee Wong, CEO of IUGO Mobile Entertainment. “The success of our partnership with GREE comes from both parties offering close and regular communication and a willingness to learn and share with each other. It is a foundation that that needs to be built to ensure the publishing relationship works. Knights & Dragons is proof of how far the right game can go with the right teams behind it.”

In July 2013, GREE announced that Knights & Dragons, had surpassed $ 1 million in monthly revenue. Since then, GREE has continued to collaborate with IUGO to add new features, content and ongoing in-game events as well as to track key metrics to continually improve game experience, retention and monetization. The refinement of Knights & Dragons as an RPG has won it a loyal following of players, earning positive reviews, high chart rankings and firm growth in month-on-month revenue. As further evidence of the game’s compelling play, Knights & Dragons recently won the “I Can’t Quit You” award in Google’s first ever Players’ Choice poll.

For more information on Knights & Dragons, visit the game’s Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/knightsanddragonsgame.

For more information about GREE, visit http://www.gree-corp.com or follow us on Twitter at @gree_corp.

About IUGO Mobile Entertainment, Inc.

Founded in 2003, IUGO is an innovative studio focused on creating premium game experiences on mobile devices. The passionate team is a perfect balance of inspired game creators and strong technology experts. In parallel with creating great games, IUGO has invested significant efforts into developing a suite of robust and high performance mobile-specific technologies. This has given the studio an edge to deliver superior products that look and play better. IUGO has earned a solid reputation for delivering recognized AAA titles for major global publishers as well as achieving success with its own self-published original games.

About GREE, Inc.

GREE is a global mobile social company with businesses that include social gaming, social media, advertising, licensing and merchandising, and venture capital. Established in December 2004, GREE created the world’s first mobile social game in 2007 and today is a global leader in free-to-play, reaching audiences around the world with its portfolio of first-party and partner titles. GREE has studios in Tokyo, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Seoul, and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (3632).

GREE and the GREE logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of GREE, Inc., in Japan and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.







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Leveraging Consumer Data is Biggest Challenge Facing Online Marketers in 2014, According to Annual StrongView Marketing Trends Survey

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Redwood City, CA (PRWEB) December 17, 2013

The good news is marketers plan to increase their budgets on activities that increase customer engagement through more relevant and timely campaigns; however, the bad news is they say their lack of ways to quickly access and apply high quality, comprehensive data continues to thwart their efforts.

This is according to StrongView’s “2014 Marketing Trends Survey,” which provides unique insight into how businesses plan to prioritize marketing dollars, programs and channels in the New Year.

The survey results shine a bright light on the widely held challenges presented by the plethora of data now available to marketers. In short, while brands are capturing more customer and industry data than ever before, marketers report common problems in accessing and leveraging it in the most meaningful ways. However, these challenges are not stopping those marketers from increasing their spending on customer engagement: a whopping 93% plan to increase or maintain marketing budgets for the year. This is up from 89% in 2013. Email marketing, social media marketing, search marketing, display marketing and mobile marketing top the list of areas for increased spending in 2014.

“While we saw a strong desire to engage with customers at a more personal and meaningful level in our survey this year, marketers remain hampered and frustrated by an inability to access and leverage all the data being generated by a growing number of marketing channels,” said Shawn Myers, vice president of marketing at StrongView. “Effectively engaging customers with what we call ‘Present Tense Marketing’ requires an in-depth understanding of the customer’s context at a particular moment in time, and that can only be achieved with the strategic use of all available data.”

SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

    40% cite accessing and leveraging customer data as biggest email marketing challenge; 36% lack of resources; 32% developing more relevant engagements.
    44% have goal to improve engagement; 36% to improve segmentation and targeting; 31% to grow opt-in lists.
    93% plan to increase or maintain marketing budgets in 2014; 46% plan to increase.
    52% plan to increase email marketing spend; 46% social media; 41% search; 36% display.
    57% of email lifecycle marketing to be focused on loyalty; 53% on welcome; 50% winback.
    59% plan to integrate email with social; 55% with mobile; 23% with display.
    55% of marketers chose Facebook as the most valuable social channel; 18% LinkedIn; 10% Twitter; less than 5% named Pinterest, Google+ or Instagram as most valuable.

MARKETERS CITE DATA QUALITY AND LATENCY AS NEW DATA CHALLENGES

In last year’s StrongView 2013 Marketing Trends Survey, marketers reported facing challenges with managing data and integrating it with other channels. This latest survey goes further to uncover the biggest challenges to leveraging data, with quality (22%), latency in its availability to marketers (16%) and lack of strategy (15%) topping the list. Data access and the ability to specifically leverage web behavior (34%), shopping behavior (25%) and customer sentiment (23%) were particularly vexing to marketers. Demographics (53%), purchase history (49%) and web behavioral data (31%) were used most often in campaigns. The challenges surrounding the use and understanding of data were highly noted in responses to almost every question.

INCREASING ENGAGEMENT THROUGH GREATER RELEVANCY IS A MAJOR INITIATIVE

Across channels, marketers report that a key objective in 2014 will be to increase engagement with customers, primarily by creating campaigns with higher degrees of relevancy based on contextual clues. StrongView recommends that marketers achieve relevancy by developing campaigns that adopt the tenets of “Present Tense Marketing,” whereby marketers adapt in real time to a customer’s present tense or current state, putting the next marketing action in the proper context of their activities.

EMAIL MARKETING REMAINS STRONG

The stalwart channels of email and search marketing remain principal avenues for marketers to reach customers, with social media marketing continuing to rise in importance. More than 50% of marketers plan budget increases in email and 46% in social marketing in 2014; 41% of marketers plan to increase search spending, up from 39.8% in 2013.

Respondents reported intentions to increase spending for automated email programs such as lifecycle (34%) and triggered events (38%). Of the marketers who plan to increase spend on lifecycle email marketing programs, 57% plan to focus on loyalty programs with 50% indicating a focus on winback efforts and 53% on welcoming new customers. These and other data support marketers’ plans to make strides in customer engagement in the coming year.

LARGEST SOCIAL PLATFORMS CONSIDERED MOST VALUABLE

While the investment in social channels overall to engage customers is set to increase in 2014 (46%), marketers overwhelmingly and, not surprisingly, name the largest social platforms as their most valuable channels.

Facebook ranked among the top three by 81% of marketers, Twitter by 67%, YouTube by 48% and LinkedIn by 44%. Pinterest, for example, though noted as valuable to some degree by more than 85% of respondents, was listed as a top three most valuable channel by less than 13% of marketers. Highly popular Instagram was only ranked in the top three by 10% of marketers, though 86% saw some value.

SURVEY INFOGRAPHIC

An infographic highlighting key findings is available at: http://www.strongview.com/2014surveyinfographic.

SURVEY DATA

Full survey data is available at: http://www.strongview.com/2014marketsurvey.

ABOUT THE SURVEY

The StrongView “2014 Marketing Trends Survey” was conducted in conjunction with SENSORPRO. The poll, which gathered feedback from 386 business executives across all major industries, was conducted from November 18 – 27, 2013.

ABOUT STRONGVIEW

StrongView’s cross-channel marketing solutions provide enterprise marketers with the tools, services and insights required to effectively engage today’s constantly connected customers. Combining a powerful cross-channel campaign management solution with market-leading data access and analysis, StrongView’s Marketing Cloud enables marketers to understand the current context of each customer and respond in real time with relevant messages across email, mobile, social, display and web.

A champion of “Present Tense Marketing,” StrongView is committed to delivering solutions that reflect the new reality of the technology-empowered customer. Based in Redwood City, CA and backed by leading venture capital investors, StrongView has been helping global brands in retail, travel, finance, entertainment and online services overcome the limitations of other marketing platform providers for more than a decade.







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CIT GAP Funds Invests in DivvyCloud

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Herndon, VA (PRWEB) December 17, 2013

The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) announced today that its CIT GAP Funds invested in DivvyCloud, a McLean-based startup that provides software to help companies optimize their hybrid cloud-based IT infrastructure.

CIT President and CEO Pete Jobse said, “DivvyCloud provides an innovative answer to a complex problem – management of hybrid cloud environments – that a growing number of companies face. Solutions like DivvyCloud’s software are what we look for with our CIT GAP Funds investments.”

Companies employing multiple clouds to run online services often find it painful and difficult to manage. DivvyCloud’s software simplifies this management process by providing a unified management interface, simplified cost tracking and integrated system and application monitoring. DivvyCloud helps companies leverage these three key offerings to increase product stability and reduce operational waste, making cloud management more efficient.

DivvyCloud CEO and co-founder Brian Johnson said, “We will use the investment from CIT GAP Funds for product development and sales. We plan to add engineers and online marketing resources, which will help scale the business.”

CIT GAP Funds is a family of seed- and early-stage investment funds placing near-equity and equity investments in Virginia-based high-growth technology, life science and clean technology companies.

Tom Weithman, VP, CIT Entrepreneur and Managing Director of the CIT GAP Funds, said, “DivvyCloud provides a valuable service to companies managing multiple clouds for their online services. CIT GAP Funds provides the early-stage funding that companies like DivvyCloud need to grow their businesses.”

Since its 2005 launch, CIT GAP Funds has invested in over 90 companies across the Commonwealth of Virginia, deploying more than $ 10 million of public funds and attracting over $ 135 million more in private funding.    

About the Center for Innovative Technology, http://www.cit.org

Since 1985, CIT, a nonprofit corporation, has been the Commonwealth’s primary driver in developing innovation-based economic development strategies and opportunities. CIT accelerates the next generation of technology and technology companies through commercialization, capital formation, market development and revenue generation services. To facilitate national innovation leadership and accelerate the rate of technology adoption, CIT creates partnerships between innovative technology startup companies and advanced technology consumers. Follow CIT on Twitter @CITorg and add the Center for Innovative Technology on LinkedIn and Facebook.

About the CIT GAP Funds, http://www.citgapfunds.org

CIT GAP Funds makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean tech and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors and the Commonwealth of Virginia. CIT GAP Funds investments are overseen by the CIT GAP Funds Investment Advisory Board (IAB). This independent, third-party panel consists of leading regional entrepreneurs, angel and strategic investors, and venture capital firms such as: New Enterprise Associates, Grotech Ventures, Valhalla Partners, Harbert Venture Partners HIG Ventures, Edison Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intersouth Partners, SJF Ventures, Carilion Clinic, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric and Alpha Natural Resources.

About DivvyCloud

DivvyCloud software helps companies simplify the orchestration, monitoring and auditing of hybrid cloud-based infrastructure. DivvyCloud was founded by two seasoned engineers with experience managing world-class hybrid cloud environments, which led to the development of its software that helps enterprises leverage private and public cloud technologies. DivvyCloud’s software provides unified management, cost tracking/simulation and integrated auditing capabilities to increase security, increase efficiency, and reduce overhead.

Follow DivvyCloud on Twitter @DivvyCloud and LinkedIn or visit the website at http://www.divvycloud.com

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