Anyone can have an idea, but delivering that idea successfully and seeing the final result is not always plain sailing. Seems that IT start-ups have been delivering very promising ideas so far, and that these companies and projects can, in some particular way, change the future.
Since its inception (2011 in Latin America and Spain), the start-up incubator, Wayra, baked up and promoted many projects and creative digital ideas in numerous IT fields and supported the creation of many IT companies.
This business incubator, or accelerator if you prefer, does not only give financial support, but also provides office space, mentoring, technical support from Telefonica, and more. It has been operating in 12 countries, and recently Wayra UK organized the first investor demo day with over 100 investors where 19 projects were pitching for the next round of investments.
Let us see some of the interesting projects that have been supported in UK so far.
iHelp is a mobile application designed to save lives and to get help quickly, or should I say more quickly, in an emergency situations. When emergency happens, users can send an SOS message to their family and friends, and professional rescuers, in fact to all of those who are a part of their personal Emergency Care Network.
It is accompanied by a wristband and it collects data such as personal information, user location, medical conditions, and more. UK, Bulgaria, Germany and Croatia can already use the app on their Android devices. The most important thing is that two lives have already been saved with iHelp to date.
If you want to know what makes you happy and what makes you sad, and if you, for some reasons, cannot comprehend your emotions and find the cause, there is a way to understand, because in EI Technologies (they) “strive to be the leader in solutions that are able to assess, identify, predict and respond to the emotions of consumers”.
They created a software, in fact the idea is delivered through Xpression app that one can install on a smartphone, which can understand the persons’ emotions by listening to their voice. The app is perhaps more of a help tool that can find the cause of an emotional problem, especially when one is experiencing stress, anxiety, depression and other related emotions and states. The goal is to connect technology in a natural way and psychological therapy. Duncan Barclay of EI Technology describes it as a mood diary.
Although many people today opt for reading online, old habits die hard, and many of us still prefer our first morning coffee while reading printed media. Many people are still reading newspapers in metro or other public transportations on their way to work as well.
However, we do not have to choose between these two worlds, we can now easily share articles and pictures from our favourite printed media on social networks that is online. All we need is Peekster, Shazam for printed media.
So, if you come across an interesting article while drinking your first coffee, or in any other occasion, just scan the paper with this app and you will have a digital version. The app has a support for The Guardian, The Evening Standard, The Independent, Metro and City AM, and the company expects more in the future. One of the creators, Smiljan Kerencic said that they want to bring newspapers to young people because a lot of people are still reading newspapers, especially in UK.
Dattch is a social app that allows lesbian, bisexual and bi-curious women connect with each other. As explained on their web site:
This may surprise you but at Dattch we’ve learnt something pretty unique; women aren’t the same as men. We look at things differently and we talk about different things. Problem is, no one seems to have acknowledged this before. We’re different and we’re happy to go with that. So we built a different kind of app, one that’s only for women.
The aim of this dating app is to provide more details about a person’s life, and to have better idea about a person before getting in contact, as opposed to other dating apps that usually focus on location and provide very little information about a person. Dattch is seeking for funding that will provide this dating app to US and Australia.
Songdrop is another interesting app, that is, in fact, your online music player which allows you to stream music from different sources. It is an app that help you organize your music and share it with your friends. It is not just a music player because it allows you to like the individual “dropped” tracks, to integrate your Facebook friend list, and to follow bands and artists. By now, there has been around 2 million plays.
These are just some of the projects that caught my interest, other successful project and creative ideas you can find on their website.
