Building on success..
On the 6th of July 2017, we officially unveiled the 10 companies that participated in Vodafone xone’s 2017 accelerator programme.
We launched the programme in 2016 with an ambition to find the best mobile and digital technologies in New Zealand, and support them to scale globally through Vodafone’s international network. In creating the Vodafone xone accelerator programme our goal was to contribute to the development of innovation in New Zealand and to bring the expertise that Vodafone has globally in driving technological innovation. Collectively and individually, the 2016 xonees succeeded in helping us to visualise these goals and what they could mean.
Last year we were particularly interested to see where emerging companies are looking to innovate in quickly evolving areas such as health technology, IoT (Internet of Things), artificial intelligence and big data. The Vodafone xone Class of 2017 is inspiring – the quality of the people, the range of ideas and solutions that they have, and the passion – these are fantastic entrepreneurs that we are very enthusiastic to have had the opportunity to work with.
1Centre
1Centre is a cloud-based platform that digitally streamlines trade credit application and approval processes for both suppliers and their customers.
Suppliers can initiate and track applications, on-board simultaneously and use data to influence trade sales and marketing decisions; customers can fill out a single application that can be pre-populated across multiple entities, eliminating paper processes. 46M trade credit applications are produced in NZ, Australia, UK and USA every year.
You can learn more at 1centre.com
Emblim
Emblim is a social media platform for discovering and managing gaming communities.
The internet has experienced the streamlining of communities in many unique sectors such as travel (Airbnb), friendships (Facebook) and even your professional life (LinkedIn). Emblim aims to revolutionise the community process in the fastest growing entertainment industry and one of the fastest emerging niche markets, believing that no gamer should ever have to struggle with finding or managing a community. The global gaming industry is larger than Hollywood and the music industry combined and its growth sees no end in sight.
Check them out at emblim.co
EVNEX
EVNEX allows customers to deploy electric vehicle charging solutions that easily integrate with grid demand response systems and solar smart grid technology.
EVNEX is among the first in the world to allow our customers to deploy electric vehicle charging solutions that easily integrate with grid demand response systems and solar smart grid technologies, enabling energy providers and charging network owners to have simple control over vehicle energy use with the least possible inconvenience to the end user. EVNEX is building its system on next generation IoT networks to enable low-cost, reliable and secure communications.
Follow the story at evnex.com
Hectre
Hectre is a software tool to help growers manage their orchard to lower costs and grow better fruit.
The Hectre software tracks activity and gives growers real-time data through GPS tracking and digital tags, and creates an electronic footprint of when and where fruit has come from. This initial solution builds the infrastructure to support IoT for orchards in the future. In NZ, the apple industry is the fastest growing architectural sector and the opportunity to reduce cost, increase yield and add value to consumers by up to $30,000 per hectare can be achieved with automation, improved data collection and analysis.
Learn more about how they do it at hectre.com
Parkable
Changes the way people park by connecting users to park hosts, helping users save money, and hosts earn income.
Parkable are looking to solve the connected car-parking problem. Car-parking is currently defined by inefficient use of space, poor traffic management (congestion), negative environmental impact and in many instances a negative user experience (eg. tickets, unavailable parks). Parkable will help to solve this problem by enabling cars to connect with real estate, in real time. Currently, there are 800 hosts and around 13,000 users on the platform.
Read about it on parkable.co.nz
Sonnar
Sonnar Interactive creates interactive audio narratives, introducing engaging, nonlinear auditory experiences that evolve through the user’s personal choices.
Sonnar is dedicated to producing high-quality interactive audio stories spanning a number of genres. Each audio story is layered with rich soundscapes, building an immersive experience that launches the user’s imagination in the alternate world. In the near future, Sonnar will introduce an online audio story editor and publishing platform, giving avid writers and audio-enthusiasts the power to create their own interactive audio content.
More to come at sonnar.nz
Tectonus
Provides self-centring joints that protect your buildings from earthquakes and returns it to its original position.
The joint developed by Tectonus combines energy damping and self-centring capabilities into one compact solution. The joint will reduce damage to buildings and allow them to return to their original position during and after earthquakes. Business continuity is ensured for tenants while lowering insurance premiums for building owners. These joints can be installed into new buildings, or retrofitted, and do not require ongoing maintenance.
Learn more at tectonus.com
Thematic
Thematic takes raw data and creates an interactive report that includes key driver analysis, customer segment comparison and impact analytics (prediction) using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Deep Machine Learning (ML) algorithms.
By analyzing survey responses using these methods, Thematic helps companies understand their customers, with an interface allowing an interactive way for clients to visualize the results, highlighting key themes in customer comments, explaining what drives customer satisfaction and how they can impact customer loyalty.
Explanations and demos at getthematic.com
Vensa Health
Vensa is disrupting the bricks and mortar model of primary health care via Vensa.com, making healthcare more convenient and accessible.
Using Vensa’s technology, doctors and nurses will become more mobilised and should be able to serve their patients from anywhere. The aim is to change the behaviour of how medical practices operate, to work with the traditional structure from the bottom up with the right tools, starting with the reception team and moving toward working with doctors, providing each layer with a tailored and interconnected experience.
See how it works: vensa.com
Wine Grenade
Wine Grenade mimics the age-old maturing process without requiring small-volume and expensive French-oak barrels.
Wine Grenade’s technology achieves this through micro-oxygenation; the act of controlling the addition of small amounts of oxygen into wine, in order to replicate the chemical developments that occur naturally when a wine is being aged in a barrel. Winemakers are able to exercise greater control over the development of their product, achieve a better taste, and see greater consistency year-on-year. The use of this technology in place of a barrel can save winemakers around $1.50 off the cost of a single bottle of wine.
Find out more about the process at winegrenade.com