A Cold, Dark, East London Cinema Witnesses Techstars London Demo Day

Techstars has had a fast 3 years in Europe. After Techstars London, led by the departing Jon Bradford, had been set up, it opened a further three programmes: in Berlin, the Techstars Metro Accelerator (around retail) and a fintec accelerator sponsored by Barclays Bank.

Techstars London Demo Day today saw over 1,000 people signed up (the majority of whom actually turned up to a rented East London cinema on a cold winter’s day) and featured speakers including Liam Casey (PCH International), Nicolas Brusson (BlaBlacar), Usman Haque (Umbrellium), Roland Lamb (Roli) and Mikkel Svane (Zendesk); as well as investors from Union Square Ventures, Wellington Partners, Balderton Capital and Index Ventures.

Out of 1,000 applications from startups for this year, 10 companies made it through, consisting of founders from the UK, Middle East, Canada and the US — and even one from Kazakhstan.

The batch also includes five companies led by previously successful entrepreneurs with the average age of the founders being 33 years old.

Out of those that pitched, the chatter in the hall afterwards was mostly about Knyttan and Kimono (see below).

Here is a quick rundown on the companies, and how they describe themselves.

Bidvine

“A service to help you find the right professional without all of the legwork”

Big Data for Humans

“A B2B solution that automating customer insights without massive costs of employing data science.”

Geospock

“ A real-time database that can handle can any scale data with no performance degradation”

IndyBo

“Modular robotic toy company that transforms the way kids learn about programming and electronics.”

Kimono

“An enterprise messaging platform that transforms how people communicate at work, with an unbelievably simple solution”

Knyttan

“A vertically integrated fashion brand whose unique technology allows it to offer more designs and respond to trends faster than any existing retailer.”

Lystable

“Listable is the platform for the lean enterprise, helping large organisations manage their suppliers and external resource”

Rainbird

“A symbolic AI platform that is transforming the way that businesses are automating human-intensive knowledge work”

Swarm

“Alows you to create and crowd fund a collaborative company.”

UB

“Provides a native shopping basket for apps that aggregate products, significantly increasing their conversion rate.”

from TechCrunch http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/AXuAkoyTUTs/

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