Represented Israel in the world finals to be held in 2012
The start-up company C-B4 CONTEXT BASED 4CASTING won first place in IBM Israel's SmartCamp competition and will represent Israel in the final stage of the global competition to be held in early 2012 in the USA.
C-B4 was chosen by the panel of judges from 5 companies that competed in the final stage of the IBM local competition held this week at the IBM House in Petah Tikva.
C-B4 develops software for identifying and analyzing hidden data patterns in large volume data warehouses. The system is particularly suitable for the world of retail trade and customer relationship management (CRM).
C-B4 is a private company founded in 2008 and operating in Herzliya. The CEO is Professor Irad Ben Gal and it currently employs 9 people.
This year, more than 70 start-up companies participated in IBM's SmartCamp competition, in a wide variety of development fields and business models. Participation in the competition was open to companies less than five years old, privately owned, whose turnover in the last year was less than a million dollars. The fields of activity of these companies should be integrated with the idea of the intelligent world of IBM.
The jury for the competition in Israel included: Gil Weiser, Chairman of BGN Technologies, Baruch Gindin, CEO of Gartner Middle East, Dr. Yehoshua Glitman, Chairman of the Capital Point Group, Dr. Esther Lozato, Senior Partner at Lochato Patent Editors Luchato and Dr. Miki Roda, Vice President of BMW.
The competition is part of IBM's initiative that strives to encourage and help the next generation of start-up companies to exploit the business opportunities in rapidly growing industrial fields.
"The competition is part of the 'Global Entrepreneur Program' which provides young technological ventures with support and resources in the area of products, manpower and professional skills, and sales promotion," said Vova Soroka, Director of IBM's Global Technologies Unit (GTU) which manages the competition in Israel.
IBM's SmartCamp competition is designed to identify and promote new technologies as part of the company's "smart world" project. The Israeli competition is one of nine such competitions held by IBM around the world - with the winner in each country advancing to the final stage of the global competition, which will be held, as mentioned, in early 2012.
So far, similar competitions have been held in Bangalore in India, in Austin in the USA, in Barcelona, in New York and in the coming weeks, competitions are also expected in Istanbul, London, Begin and Rio de Janeiro.
As mentioned, the global final competition will be held at the beginning of 2012 in the USA.
IBM's Global Technologies Unit in Israel, GTU, is in contact with Israeli technology companies in order to promote collaborations, which will yield solutions with added value common to both parties. The unit is a central point of contact between IBM and hi-tech entities and developers in Israel who wish to do business and cooperate with IBM worldwide. Today, the unit maintains a joint activity with about 150 Israeli companies and generates about 1.2 billion dollars a year from joint transactions with them.
