CeBIT: Chocolate format takes CODE-n award

At CeBIT, Relayr won the CODE_n Award or WunderBar, a bar of sensors that can be broken apart and attached to objects to measure temperature, humidity and movement.

Relayr of Berlin is the winner of this year’s CODE_n Award. This was announced by CODE_n’s jury at CeBIT in Hannover. The young company impressed the judges with its business model that paves the way into the Internet of Things for app developers. Their flagship product “WunderBar” looks like a bar of chocolate but is packed with cutting-edge sensor technology. The various sensors measure things like temperature, humidity or movement and can be broken off like chunks of chocolate and attached to physical objects. This enables software developers – without any knowledge of electrical engineering – to design applications for smartphones which can access and analyse the measured data: such as an app that controls the temperature of the wine cellar or the humidity level of the domestic greenhouse. Hardware and software communicate via relayr’s open sensor cloud platform and allow developers to make a fast and easy project start for wireless applications and prototypes – turning smartphones into smart devices. The CODE_n Award carries a prize of ‚Ǩ 30,000.

With relayr, the jury has chosen a company that perfectly embodies the theme of CODE_n15, ‚ÄòInto the Internet of Things’,” says Ulrich Dietz, CEO of the GFT Group and initiator of CODE_n. “‚ÄòWunderbar’ makes it very easy for programmers to grasp and apply the Internet of Things (IoT). And this is also important, for although everyone is talking about IoT – especially at CeBIT – the perceived hurdles for developers are still very high. relayr removes these hurdles. A lack of hardware knowledge is now no longer an excuse. The simplicity of the solution and the implications for IoT left the jury in no doubt.

Before the decision was made, the Top10 CODE_n finalists had the chance to present their business models once again to the jury and hundreds of fair visitors on Wednesday afternoon. Against the backdrop of hall 16’s design by Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram with the robot installation ROBOCHOP, the finalists once again gave their all and earned the enthusiastic applause of hundreds of industry experts. Over the past three days of the fair, all 50 finalists hardly had a moment to catch their breath: potential business partners, customers and investors, as well as thousands of fair visitors and the media lined up at the stands to question the young startups about their business models and strategies. At the half-way stage of CeBIT, Ulrich Dietz’s conclusion so far is that “the concept of Deutsche Messe to focus on B2B visitors has had a very positive impact on CODE_n, as well as the finalists and partners. The atmosphere in hall 16 is absolutely fascinating. Aided by ROBOCHOP, there’s a real spirit of optimism in the air.

EY presents Social Voting Award, Salesforce hands out invitation to San Francisco

Not only relayr was honoured on Wednesday evening. EY, one of the very first CODE_n partners, had initiated its EY Ignite Innovation Challenge: from 4 March onwards, internet users were called upon to vote for their favourites on CODE_n CONNECT. The winner was: greenbird Integration Technology from Oslo. EY is now inviting the Norwegian company to Silicon Valley to establish contacts with investors and potential business partners. Salesforce decided to let fortune take its course and randomly selected Aisoy Robotics from Spain to attend the Dreamforce ‘15 conference in San Francisco.

Over 400 startups had submitted their entries for the CODE_n CONTEST, which is divided into the four topic areas Industry 4.0, Future Mobility, Smart City and Digital Life. The pioneering business ideas ranged from a platform for the efficient networking of machines, to a cloud-based IT security system, intelligent sensors for temperature-sensitive drugs and an indoor navigation solution for smartphones.

The CODE_n jury comprised: Klaus Bauer (TRUMPF), Klaas Bollhöfer (The Unbelievable Machine Company), Laurent Delaporte (NetMediaEurope), Ulrich Dietz (GFT Group), Frank Engelhardt (Salesforce), Manfred Engeser (Wirtschaftswoche), Uli Huener (EnBW), Carsten Knop (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Olaf Riedel (EY), Frank Riemensperger (Accenture) and Benedict Rodenstock (Astutia Ventures).

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