Click & Grow, If and ZeroTurnaround compete in Innovator 2011 finale
Click & Grow, If and ZeroTurnaround are the finalists in the competition Innovator 2011, with the winner being declared tomorrow, 14 September, in the finale of the Entrepreneurship Award 2011. The festive gala will be broadcast to the general public via TV3 at 22.15. The competition and the Entrepreneurship Award Gala are being financed with funds from the European Social Fund.
"This year, the competition was pleasantly intense," said Ilmar Pralla, Director of the Innovation Division of Enterprise Estonia. "It is a pleasure to admit that the economic crisis had a positive influence on entrepreneurs: there are many enterprises that have emerged on the market with shining ideas, effective business plans and high export potential," added Pralla.
Click & Grow OÜ, which develops plant growing systems for private consumers, submitted to the competition an innovative flowerpot that grows plants on its own using an electronic plant growing system. The system monitors parameters that are important to plant growth; watering and supplying the plant with nutrients according to the custom adapted programme. The growing stock created by Click & Grow is unique in the world, as it is able to hold a large volume of water and maintain sufficient air-access at the same time. Click & Grow was declared the winner of the competition Brainhunt 2010, a competition also initiated by Enterprise Estonia for start-up enterprises.
Non-life insurance company If P&C Insurance AS submitted to the competition travel insurance via SMS, which they offer together with AS EMT. The insurance can be ordered and extended while already travelling, whereby the insurance will take effect immediately after sending the text message. It is also possible to extend existing travel insurance via SMS, as necessary. Clients of the undertaking say that this is a service of convenience that helps save them time.
Software development company ZeroTurnaround OÜ submitted to the competition software product JRebel, which makes the work of Java programmers more efficient and reduces programming installation time, thereby decreasing production costs by 16%. As of today, the company has sold over 6,000 JRebel licences in more than 65 countries and exports account for nearly 100% of product sales. The company's clients include, among others, Apple, IBM, Cisco, HP, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare, JPMorgan and many others.
The competition Innovator 2011 is a part of the competition Entrepreneurship Award 2011, organised by Enterprise Estonia, in which awards are presented in six different categories. Eligible for participation in the Innovator competition were Estonian companies that brought innovative products or solutions to the market in 2010-2011. The item submitted to the competition had to include new technological solutions, processes and business models for the company that developed the innovation. The award for the winner of Innovator 2011 is participation in the high-level international conference World Business Forum New York 2011.
Last year the Innovator award was presented to Massi Miliano OÜ, known under the trademark Fits.me. Fits.me is the first virtual fitting room in the world that allows people to check whether clothes fit before purchasing them online.
The winners of the categories in the competition Entrepreneurship Award 2011 and the Most Competitive Estonian Companies Ranking 2011, compiled by the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Estonian Employers' Confederation, will be announced at the festive award gala in the Estonia Concert Hall on 14 September. Further information on the competitions is available on the websites www.konkurents.ee and www.eas.ee.
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