More than 450 applicants from 60 countries: Interest in the CODE_n14 Contest was truly impressive. Young entrepreneurs from around the world answered the call of next year’s motto “Driving the Data Revolution” – all eager to present their unique big data business models to the world by securing one of the coveted CODE_n places at CeBIT in Hanover. The partners of the initiative – the GFT Group, EY, and Deutsche Messe – have selected the top 50 companies. “We were overwhelmed by the exceptional quality of the applications we received,” states Ulrich Dietz, initiator of CODE_n and CEO of the GFT Group. “CODE_n will showcase what is already possible with big data – not just in terms of technology, but also in terms of ground-breaking applications and industry solutions.” The winner of the CODE_n14 Awards can look forward to prize money of €30,000 and will be announced at CeBIT on March 12, 2014.

“Being able to select finalists from so many outstanding business concepts was a true luxury,” states Mark Smith, CEO at Ernst & Young (EY). “We could easily have chosen three times the number of startups as finalists, without losing anything in terms of quality.”
Startups from 16 countries made it to the final round of the competition. In addition to Germany, the US and the UK – which claim the majority of the finalists – Brazil, the Netherlands, Spain, Bulgaria, Israel, and France will each also send several startups to appear among the top 50 CODE_n participants. Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Canada, Luxemburg and Hungary will each send one representative startup.

The contest’s organizers are particularly pleased with the high number of user applications the CODE_n contest will present at CeBIT from March 10-14, 2014. Hall 16 will showcase a multitude of big data solutions from the areas of health, finance, transportation, manufacturing, the energy sector and retail. “As the world’s most important IT trade show, CeBIT does not only appeal to IT departments or companies from the IT sector,” states Oliver Frese, Head of CeBIT at Deutsche Messe. “IT is pervasive across all industries and has fundamentally changed the face of how business is conducted these days. That is why we are so pleased, as the trade show hosts, to address users from all of these application areas, and let the young innovators from CODE_n provide new insights for these target groups.”

From the UK perspective, GFT UK’s MD Christopher Ortiz commented: “The CODE_n finalists are of great interest on two levels. Firstly, this year marked the most UK CODE_n entrants ever and it is very impressive to see so many UK finalists in the year that the UK is CeBIT’s Country Partner. Secondly, we are seeing a lot of exciting big data finalists with a financial services offering. We’ll be working closely with them to better understand the benefits they offer to our clients.”

The UK finalists in the CODE_n Top 50 are: SOMA Analytics (Healthcare); Sefaira (Manufacturing & Construction); iptvbeat (Marketing and Sales); viewsy (Retail and Consumer); Actual Experience (Technology and IT); Deltasight (Technology and IT); Massive Analytic (Technology and IT). 

From a stress detector to a trend barometer

The 50 finalists span an extremely broad spectrum in terms of content: Among the innovations are a 3D model for construction companies to improve scheduling, an analysis tool that can be used to effectively tackle power outages and energy waste, a transportation management system for preventing traffic jams, a digital stress measurement device as an answer to impending burnout, and software that generates 3D maps of the human brain to pinpoint tissue anomalies.

Represented multiple times among the finalists are predictive analysis techniques that make it possible to do things like identify and significantly influence market trends. Customer intelligence solutions help retailers gain a better understanding of their business customers in order to offer them the right choice of products or services in real time.

5-day, first-class event

As in the past, CODE_n will offer a unique, top-notch 5-day event right in the heart of the CeBIT grounds. In addition to showcasing the 50 selected startups, the initiative will host an all-day conference program each day from Monday to Friday, along with exclusive evening events. Live concerts and the CODE_n Award on March 12, 2014, are highlights. Internationally acclaimed designers Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram will specially cover the 5,000 square meters of Hall 16 with visualizations of real anonymized big data.

So far, the contests have seen more than 1,000 young companies apply for CODE_n. Past winners include myTaxi (2012), Changers.com (2013, Best Startup) and Greenclouds (2013, Best Emerging Company).