Iñaki Berenguer wins the entrepeneurs competition MIT 100K Mobile Track with a prize of $ 25,000 dólares
Published on May 24, 2008
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Ubitrack, the company of Iñaki Berenguer (scholar 2007), has been finalist of the business plans competition of the Massachusetts Insitute of Technology (MIT 100K Business Plan Competition), having previously won the 100K Mobile Track (price of $ 25,000). This year 232 business plans participated in the competition. Previously, his company had won in February the 100K Executive Summary competition ($1,000) where more than 150 had participated. This year 232 companies entered into the said competition. An initial pre-selection of 35 companies was made in April and the final ceremony took place last 14 May.
The jury was formed by 40 judges, most of them private equity funds’ partners (Atlas Venture, Trilogy Partners, Northbridge Ventures, Polaris Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Castile Ventures, New Enterprise Associates) and renown entrepeneurs such as Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, or Howard Anderson (founder of The Yankee Group). These judges evaluated the business plan and a 30 minute presentation of each of the 7 finalists that was made in private before all judges due to confidentiality issues.
The MIT 100K is the pioneer and probably most prestigious business plan competition in the World. It has helped to create more than 85 companies with a stock exchange value of more than 10 billion dollars. Among them, Harmonix (creators of the games “Guitar Hero” or “Rock Band”), Akamai (manages 20% of the worldwide Internet traffic), Brontes, Mazu Networks, Direct Hit-Ask Jeeves, or Terrafugia. Along the competition personalized time with lawyers, private equity funds partners or strategic consulting firms is offered to support the development of the business plan and to set up initial contacts with potential investors or partners.
Ubitrack, provides P2P location systems to solve low precision and coverage problems of the current GPS systems. The idea is patented and it has been developed in the MIT laboratories during the last 3 years by the rest of the team. The $25,000 prize will be used to continue developing the model.
In the picture, Iñaki presenting Ubitrack before the nearly 1,000 people attending the final ceremony which was also broadcasted live worldwide via Internet.
Several media have recently covered this news:
Congratulations Iñaki!
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