GSMA Announces Winners of Mobile Innovation Grand Prix - Israel Tournament

LONDON - The GSMA, which represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, today announced the winners of the Israel Tournament of the 2010 Mobile Innovation Grand Prix competition. The winners were announced at the GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Israel Event, which was held as part of the 13th Annual Journey Conference, a leading technology event held by Ernst & Young in Tel Aviv on September 15th.

The Mobile Innovation ‘Grand Prix’ was created by the GSMA to showcase promising entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized companies introducing innovative products and services who require industry support to achieve market deployment. During the Israel event, ten companies from around the world competed and were reviewed by senior executives from mobile operators and venture capital firms.

The Global Finalists for the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix Israel Tournament are:

- Siklu Wireless Communications (Israel)

- fring (Israel)

“The Mobile Innovation Israel Event has been a great success and we commend the enthusiasm and commitment shown by all those who competed,” said Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer at the GSMA. “Driven by an impressive entrepreneurial spirit and a desire for technical excellence, it’s clear there are some outstanding opportunities ahead for these highly innovative companies. Our congratulations to the winners and all those who took part.”

“The Mobile Innovation Grand Prix - Israel Tournament provided the judges with an extremely difficult task in selecting two overall winners from a superb crop of candidates,” said the judging panel. “We congratulate Siklu Wireless and fring for their clear and articulate plans and solutions focused on industry needs. We are sure that both will be a disruptive force in the mobile world, taking on the ’status quo’.”

The judging panel included Rina Shainski, Carmel Ventures; Marcos Battisti, Intel Capital; Yahal Zilka, Magma; Steve Glagow, Orange; Rami Kalish and Isaac Hillel, Pitango; Guy Bauman, Pelephone; Nils Granath, Swisscom Ventures; Paolo Paganucci, Telecom Italia.

The winners, Siklu Wireless & fring, have won a trip to compete in the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix Finals, which is part of the GSMA’s prestigious Global Mobile Awards programme, at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2010.

Mobile Innovation Exchange

To compete in the regional tournaments of the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix, innovators must be a member of the GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Exchange. The Mobile Innovation Exchange is an online community whose focus is to promote mobile innovation and builds on the success of the regional events. The Mobile Innovation Exchange portal facilitates year-round dialogue, deal-making, partnering and consensus building across all the elements of the mobile ecosystem.

All of the presentations given by Innovators in front of the judges at the Israel event will be available to watch online at www.mobileinnovation.org/events/israel.

Sponsors of the Mobile Innovation Israel Event included Carmel Ventures, Generalitat de Catalunya, LiveU, Magma, Pelephone and Pitango.

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: www.gsmworld.com.

Source: GSMA

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