GSMA Announces Nominees for Mobile Innovation Grand Prix - Americas Tournament

LONDON -

- Winners to be Announced at Rutberg & Company’s Future:Mobile Event in San Francisco in December

The GSMA, which represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, today announced the finalists for the Americas Tournament of this year’s Mobile Innovation Grand Prix competition. The GSMA has partnered with Rutberg & Company, a US-based investment bank that provides M&A advisory and private capital raising services to companies in the wireless and digital media industries, to host the Americas leg of the competition at the firm’s Future:Mobile event, where the winners will be announced on December 1st 2009.

The Mobile Innovation Grand Prix competition was created by the GSMA with the primary goal of showcasing promising entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized companies bringing innovative new products and services to market. During the Americas leg, presentations from 10 finalists will be reviewed by a judging panel comprised of senior executives from mobile operators and venture capital firms. Two overall winners from the Americas leg will then move on to compete for the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix title, part of the GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards, at the Mobile World Congress in February 2010.

The 10 finalists for the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix - Americas Tournament are:

- CallSpark!, US

- DeviceAnywhere, US

- GetJar, US

- InfoGin, Israel

- iSkoot, US

- Paratek Microwave, US

- SunCore, US

- Tecore Networks, US

- Ubidyne, Germany

- WellDoc, US

“We are thrilled with the number of high-quality entries we’ve received for this year’s Americas Tournament. Innovation is at the heart of the mobile industry’s growth and dynamic evolution, fuelling new technologies, products and services that could have a huge impact on people’s lives,” said Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer at the GSMA. “This competition provides a significant opportunity for the finalists to gain exposure in front of not only the senior mobile and VC executives on the judging panel, but also the many other influential decision makers present at Rutberg & Company’s Future:Mobile event.”

In addition to the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix competition, the GSMA will host a dedicated full-day track focused on innovation, which will boast a strong line up of industry thought leaders discussing a number of hot and current industry issues. Attendance for Future:Mobile is limited to 200 invited senior executives who are responsible for innovation within their organisations, as well as strategic partnerships, investments, and acquisitions.

The Future:Mobile 2009 event will take place at the Sofitel Hotel San Francisco on December 1st 2009. For more information please visit: www.rutbergco.com/conferences/future-mobile-2009.

The Platinum sponsor of the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix competition is the Generalitat de Catalunya. For more information on the GSMA’s Mobile Innovation programme and Americas Tournament, please visit www.mobileinnovation.org.

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry.

For more information, please visit Mobile World Live, the new online portal for the mobile communications industry, at www.mobileworldlive.com or the GSMA corporate website at www.gsmworld.com.

Source: GSMA

Press contacts: Daniel Lowther: +44-7747-636-687, press at gsm.org