Vodafone Showcases Mobile Clicks 2011 Finalists

Vodafone today unveiled the seven mobile internet start-ups that have reached the final of the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011 competition. They are:

Germany Wunderlist is the first cross platform task management app that supports over-the-air sync and unlimited sharing completely for free.

Netherlands Skylines offers a search platform for real-time images. Combining data from social media sites like Instagram, and Yfrog Twitpic, Skylines indexes over one million photos a day.

Portugal Hole19 is a complete mobile and web performance optimization platform for golfers, connecting them to golf instructors and golf courses.

Republic of Ireland HeyStaks is a social search service that plugs in to Google, Bing, and Yahoo! to bring you more relevant results as you search.

Spain Frogtek is an app that allows shopkeepers in the developing world to set up a financial system to run their business easily and quickly.

Turkey BillGastro offers restaurant owners an affordable point of sale solution for a unique mobile restaurant app for their customers to reserve tables, to order food online and post news and events easily.

UK ParcelGenie is the world’s first Instant Gift Messaging service that makes sending real gifts to friends and family almost as simple as sending an email or a text message.

“We are always excited to see the tremendous innovation coming through our Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition each year. It’s the perfect launch pad for start-ups, but it’s always challenging to pick winners because we receive so many superb entries. Through both rounds, our country winners demonstrated not only creativity and innovation, but also the value-add to customers, which really made them stand out from the competition. We’re delighted to have them all on board and we look forward to seeing what they bring to the table in this final stage” said Lee Epting, Director of Content Services at Vodafone Group.

The seven local winners will now be invited to represent their country in the live final at the PICNIC* Festival in the Netherlands on 15th – 16th September 2011, where the overall winner will be chosen by a panel of mobile industry experts. Judges include: Rudy de Waele, founder of Mobile 2.0 Europe and dotopen; Peter Barry, Vodafone Ventures; Paul Jozefak, Neuhaus Partners; Reshma Sohoni; partner at Seedcamp and Lee Epting, Vodafone Group.

Ahead of the PICNIC presentations, members of the public are invited to cast their vote for the winner of Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011. At the live final, the overall result of the public vote will be counted alongside the votes of panel members to decide the overall winner. To vote, visit www.vodafonemobileclicks.com/vote.

Helena Leite, CEO of Cardmobili, the Portugal-based start-up that won last year’s Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition, commented: “We were incredibly excited and proud to hear we had reached the final of Vodafone Mobile Clicks. When you meet the other finalists you will know you’ve already achieved a lot by being part of that group of creative and bright people, and you should remain confident that you can reach the next level. My advice to this year’s contestants is to prepare, prepare, prepare. Think about the message you want to convey but keep it clear - remember that the judges won’t be as close to your product as you are. And then make sure you rehearse your pitch lots… time flies when you are presenting to the judges!”

Netherlands-based Layar won Vodafone Mobile Clicks in 2009. Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, Co-founder, said: "It was cool making it to the final round of the competition. My tip for this year’s contestants would be to try and sync any product updates with the different rounds – by chance this happened with Layar and it certainly worked for us. Going on to win the overall competition was the icing on the cake; it was the first major prize Layar won and gave us a confidence boost that we were on the right track. Vodafone Mobile Clicks was a great help in shaping our pitch and how we communicated Layar to the outside world. It’s a good opportunity to learn and get feedback on your startup. ”

For further information about the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011 competition, go to: www.vodafonemobileclicks.com or keep up-to-date with recent news by following our Tweets with the hashtag #vmc2011.

* PICNIC is Amsterdam’s leading annual international event, highlighting creativity and innovation, particularly in media, entertainment and technology. PICNIC brings together and disseminates the ideas and knowledge of the world's best creators and innovators. For more information go to www.picnicnetwork.org

About Vodafone
Vodafone is one of the world's largest mobile communications companies by revenue with approximately 382 million customers in its controlled and jointly controlled markets as at 30 June March 2011. Vodafone currently has equity interests in over 30 countries across five continents and more than 40 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com.

For more information about the Vodafone developer programme, please visit www.developer.vodafone.com

For further information please contact:

Amy Ronge
Skywrite
amy.ronge@skywritepr.com
+44 (0) 20 7608 4649

Vodafone Group Media Relations
groupmediarelations@vodafone.com
+44 (0) 1635 664444