Get in the Ring 2014
2014 was the year Get in the Ring went truly global. The Global Startup Competition grew to 8 Regional Finals and 54 countries. It was the Olympics for Startups. This was also the year we held our first corporate innovation challenge. Friendships and partnerships were formed at Get in the Ring competitions around the world, let’s take a trip down the memory lane and see what happened to our heroes.
Kickoff of the Season
The Get in the Ring 2014 season was kicked off at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2014 in Moscow. A meetup to share ideas on how to build startup ecosystems worldwide and to strengthen the relationships with our international partner community.
Great to meet the Dutch "Get in the Ring" founders. Hope to bring #GITR14 to Canada! #GEC2014 pic.twitter.com/xUhRS2Uko7
— Julia Deans (@juliadeans) March 18, 2014
Regional highlights
54 national finals have been hosted to identify the most promising startups in all corners of the world. These winners came together in regional finals to obtain a ticket to the Global Meetup 2014. Featured below are the national finals held in Morocco & The Netherlands as well as the regional final in North America.
National Final
Morocco
National Final
The Netherlands
The Dutch finals were hosted by Erasmus Center for Entrepreneurship in the Rotterdam Science Towers. The most promising startups in the Netherlands participated in an exciting day filled with pitching opportunities in front of our champion investors, attended insightful workshops, received coaching by BDO, and networked among fellow innovators and investors in the ING networking area.
In three battles Snappcar, the cloakroom, eFact, Crowdy house, Enwake, iLost faced off against each other in the ring with a champion jury consisting of Thijs Gitmans (Peak Capital), Robert Verwaayen (Keen Venture Partners), Floris van Alkemade, Damien van der Bijl (InnovationQuarter), Dennis van den Busken (ING), Frank Tazelaar (APM Terminals).
The winner was the fast growing car sharing app: SnappCar. SnappCar got a ticket to the Western Europe Regional Finals in Dortmund where it battled against the winners from Iceland, Germany, Denmark, UK and Belgium.
Regional Final
North American Clash
The North American Clash was a true battle of the north. Startups from Canada and USA battled for the honour to represent North America at the Global Meetup.
FuturPreneur selected finalists from Toronto (The Rumie Initiative), Winnipeg (Advolve), Montreal (pplConnect) and Waterloo (Maieutic Enterprises) to represent Canada. Through local rounds, Kauffman Foundation selected the best of the best from Kansas City, Seattle, Austin and Pittsburgh: FitBark, Hydrobee, Spot On Sciences and Identified Technologies.
After epic battles in Kansas City the jury, consisting of among others Mark Hasebroock – Founding partner of Dundee Venture Capital, crowned Spot On Sciences as the regional winner of North America.
Regional Hosts of 2014
North America
South America
Africa
Asia
Western Europe
Southern Europe
Eastern Europe
Middle East
Media highlights
As featured in:
eFishery – Global Winner 2014
eFishery claimed victory at the Global Meetup 2014 as Global Winner.Read the full article here.
Dutch local hero @mgmuller in Dutch newspager Metro about #GEC2014 and the role of investors @unleashingideas pic.twitter.com/CHfSuB6TRF
— Get in the Ring (@GITRGlobal) March 24, 2014
One of our favorite @bidnet Rwandan entrepreneurs @angazaltd and @GITRafrica participant got featured on CNN! http://t.co/4Lud2dLaBX
— Marijn (@Mbergsma) March 6, 2015
Pixelbug – Get in the Ring Dubai
Pixelbug went on to further develop their AR-products and eventually got acquired by the U.S. based learning platform Besombody.
Great entrepreneurship promotion in #Rotterdam at #GITR14 and the audience kicks in! @Liesbethberns pic.twitter.com/R6kxaKRQsE
— Michiel Muller (@mgmuller) November 21, 2014
TutoToons – Get in the Ring Lithuania
TutoToons documented their journey towards Get in the Ring Lithuania in this extensive blogpost.
ScreenDy – Get in the Ring Africa Finalist
"20 of the world's hottest start-ups of 2014" http://t.co/HX72JfpdXp by @LoriIoannou1 pic.twitter.com/cp1LDpZdwZ
— Prywes, PC - NY Law Firm for Artists & Startups (@NYStartupAttys) December 1, 2014
Meeting your new boss at Get in the Ring
Read the story of Lukas Braunschweig who met his new boss during the Global final of Get in the Ring.
Rotterdam
Global Meetup 2014
Champion jury members
Adriaan Ligtenberg
Co-founder of Pacific Technology Partners; Board Member Altair Semiconductor
Lauren Millian
Founder of Gen Y Venture Capital; Author of The Path Redefined;
Zsolt Lavotha
Executive Chairman of ZEL Business Advisory Group; President of the MVCA
Howard Lindzon
Co-founder of Stocktwits; Managing partner of the Holding Company Social Leverage
For a full live stream of the Global Meetup 2014: Global Meetup 2014 live stream
Global Winner 2014
Asia – Indonesia
eFishery is an integrated feeding solution for fish and shrimp farming. Since being crowned as the international champion of Get in the Ring eFishery raised $5.2M and has scaled internationally. The potential is enormous as in Indonesia alone, the overall market size for aquaculture is $5.4B.
Finalist of 2014
GoMetro – South Africa
After Get in the Ring
Justin Coetzee, founder of GoMetro, gave a webinar on his experience as entrepreneur and how it was for him to participate in Get in the Ring 2014.
The Get in the Ring Experience totally changed our business (…) it was really an important step in our journey to take the stage and be validated by the community
The full webinar of Justin can be found here.
Finalists of 2014
GoMetro
South Africa – Cape Town
Spot on Sciences
North America – U.S.
Healthy Memory (UMA)
South America – Bolivia
Integreight
Middle East – Egypt
Nannuka
Southern Europe – Greece
Choo Choo Baby Carriers
Eastern Europe – Moldova
Templafy
Western Europe – Denmark
SnappCar
Wildcard – The Netherlands
Screendy
Wildcard – Morocco
Having the honor to represent Southern Europe in the International Get In The Ring Finals in Rotterdam, helped us get a better view of the startup ecosystem and meet interesting startup teams and experienced advisors from all over the world
Nannuka – Regional Winner for South Europe, Get In The Ring 2014
Collaboration
In 2014 Get in the Ring hosted their first corporate innovation challenge with APM Terminals. A concept of which many hundreds of challenges would follow in the years after. APM Terminals was looking for solutions that could innovate the safety of their terminal.
Out of all contestants in the competition, the Turkish startup DriveMarvin was selected to meet innovation leaders from APM Terminals. The meeting was arranged at the Global Meetup in Rotterdam. Out of this challenge DriveMarvin and APM Terminals started a pilot to automate vehicles on the terminals of APM and increase worker safety.
Partners of 2014
South America
Middle East
Bader program
Africa
Educat
JCI Rwanda
Galaxy Hotel
North America
Marketplace