Top six finalists named in BNZ’s Start-up Alley competition

Top six finalists named in BNZ’s Start-up Alley competition

The top six finalists have been found in BNZ’s Start-up Alley, a competition to help grow New Zealand’s web and technology start-up businesses.

Part of the Webstock conference in Wellington, the competition’s winner will receive a prize pack that includes $10,000 cash and return flights for two to San Francisco.

Webstock Start-up alley judge, BNZ Head of Small Business Harry Ferreira, says “We’re rapt to have received such high-calibre entries from start-ups ready to take the next step. The web and tech industries are really setting the standard for New Zealand companies that want to grow and expand New Zealand’s economic potential.”

The six finalists who will be pitching their ideas to a live audience and a panel of judges in a Dragons’ Den style event are:

Go Vocab - a language learning start-up founded in Wellington at the beginning of 2011, which has already signed up hundreds of teachers and thousands of students across Australia and New Zealand.

MyTours - An easy to use online tour builder for mobile applications that allows customers to build and sell their tours on Smart Phone market places, or give them away for free.

Educa - Educa is a web based application for early childhood education sector, that lets parents engage with preschool teachers and become more involved in their child's development.

Luumin - Lummin is an online to-do list, offering productivity and motivational support for individuals, as well as being a lightweight project management tool for teams.

PocketSmith - A web start-up in the very competitive personal finance management industry, PocketSmith makes a difference by focussing on the visual management of your money in a calendar.

uSnap.us - A concept service enabling wedding parties crowd source photos from their guests via a mobile application, by collecting images live as the wedding unfolds.

Other Start-up Alley judges include TradeMe founder Sam Morgan, co-founder of Sonar6 and the Kiwi Landing Pad John Holt, MetaFilter founder Matt Haughey, and Amy Hoy, founder of Freckle.

The finalists were chosen as those who best demonstrated their start-up has a clear direction and purpose, as well as an idea, working concept, or product.

The Webstock conference takes place on February 16 and 17, with the BNZ Start-up Alley event on the night of the 16th, when the winner will also be announced.

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