IBC’s Inaugural Startup Forum Attracts Big-Name Media Companies Looking for New Business Opportunities

IBC’s inaugural Startup Forum looks set to create some exciting new partnerships, with big-name organisations attending to find start-up or growth companies from countries around the world with the next big idea. The Startup Forum, held on Sunday 17 September, is run in association with Media Honeypot, organisers of the eponymous international conference that helps startups and growing companies to identify new business opportunities, growth strategies and potential partnerships.

Over 75 startups and growing businesses have been selected from 22 countries, across areas including VR/AR, sports, micro-payments, marketing, streaming video and publishing. Each company has been pre-qualified, ensuring they have at least a minimum viable product, revenue potential of 20 million Euros, and ambitions to expand in different markets with a developed growth strategy.

Some of the startups include:

• Oovvuu (Australia) - uses artificial intelligence to match broadcasters' videos and publishers' articles on a global scale, changing the way video is watched, distributed and monetised

• Tiledmedia (Netherlands) - a VR streaming company that enables high quality VR360 streaming at realistic bitrates

• LiveWeatherViews (Australia) - developing a timelapse camera system to help TV networks capture great weather vision with full automation over IP

• Choicely (Finland) - developing a fan engagement platform to help publishers and advertisers to engage their audiences better using their highly developed interactive formats

• SatoshiPay (Germany) - processes nanopayment transactions usually in the form of bitcoins. The company is developing a two-way payment platform that will allow content providers to charge consumers a small fee to read, watch or listen to content

• Giraffic (US/Israel/Hong Kong) - a market leader in client-side multimedia software acceleration, helping device manufacturers and OTT content providers overcome internet congestion challenges in order to provide their customers with an enjoyable, engaging user experience.

Heikki Rotko, Founder and Chairman, Media Honeypot, said, “I am astonished by the level of media innovation that happens outside of media companies. The selected startups represent such a huge amount of knowledge and innovation that every media house should be interested in.”

Media companies attending with a view to partner with these organisations include Sky, MTV Oy, Cisco Systems, VRT, ProSiebenSat.1 Commerce GmbH, The Venture Reality Fund and HTC.

As well as networking opportunities, the seminar programme features key speakers including Joost Brakel, Director, Digital Operations, Sanoma NL; Jakob Wais, Head of New Platforms & Video, Content Strategy, BILD; Sara Lisa Vogl, Co-Founder, VR Base; and Teresa Potocka, CEO and Founder of The Potocki Communications Company, who will share invaluable insights into the latest developments in media technology and how they can be harnessed into successful business opportunities.

IBC is also delighted to welcome HRH Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau who leads StartupDelta, the accelerator for the startup ecosystem in the Netherlands, and advises companies and the European Commission on their digital innovation strategies. He is a regular speaker at national and international tech conferences and holds a number of positions in both the public and private sector. His Royal Highness will take part in the Startup Corporate Collaboration track where the Rules of Engagement will be discussed.

In addition, five startups will be selected to take part in a Pitching Competition, pitching their business ideas to industry experts and receiving direct feedback from an expert panel. The winning company will also receive a cash prize.