Text originally from Cisco Systems
SAN JOSE, CA, Jun 24, 2009 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- Leading early-stage venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced the 16 finalists in their first co-sponsored Global Business Plan Competition for university and business school students. The finalists, whose business plans address a diverse group of issues from efficient and affordable web-scale computing to early cancer detection, will be competing from their respective geographic areas via Cisco TelePresence(TM) on June 30, 2009. The winning team will receive a minimum seed investment of $250,000.
"Clearly global innovation doesn't stop for recessions," said Tim Draper, managing director, DFJ. "These promising candidates are reminding us that there are pioneering companies out there, even in difficult times, and we hope that one of these teams creates the next Skype, Google, Facebook, Baidu or Cisco. This competition fosters a culture of entrepreneurship that has a lasting impact, and its benefits are felt not just by the winning team but by all participants. We look forward to continuing meaningful ties with all of these young entrepreneurs in the future."
The plans of the 16 finalists, many of which have already won local university competitions, were selected from thousands of eligible business plans in nine countries across the globe. The selection was based on various criteria including quality of management team, technical innovation, addressable market size, competitive positioning, barriers, capital efficiency, and financial projections. The majority of the finalists are still in the early stages of business development. In addition to the financial investment awarded to the winner, both DFJ and Cisco will assist the winner and finalists in leading the next wave of disruptive technologies by providing mentorship and professional assessments regarding their submissions.
"Cisco has always supported and nurtured entrepreneurial vision, in good times as well as in difficult times, and we're excited to help evaluate the dynamic technologies and business plans put forth by these talented finalists," said Hilton Romanski, vice president of corporate development for Cisco. "The global reach of this competition emphasizes the reality that connecting great ideas and the people who have them is no longer constrained by geographic boundaries. These 16 finalists will travel to a single boardroom in Silicon Valley without a single one of them having to physically leave their home country. This is the power of Cisco TelePresence."
The competition will use Cisco TelePresence to allow the finalists to present their business plans to a San Jose-based panel of seasoned investors from DFJ, its Global Network of Funds and Cisco. Cisco TelePresence enables collaboration through a live, face-to-face network communications experience where participants feel as though they are sitting in the same room even though they may be located thousands of miles apart.
Competitors and the media will be invited to view the competition via simulcast beginning at 8 a.m. PDT on June 30, and the winner will be announced at 6:30 p.m. PDT the same day.
Please contact Kristin Carvell (kcarvell@cisco.com) at Cisco if you are a member of the media interested in attending the competition or viewing it via a live webcast.
Finalists hail from 15 different schools in six countries. The complete list is as follows:
Name of Company University Business Plan Summary
Company Location The finalist's business plan is
based on technology that provides:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
80 Legs USA Rice University A grid computing system for
running applications that need
to analyze massive amounts of web
content quickly and affordably.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Audiallo USA University of Power-efficient, acoustic
Michigan processors that improve speech
perception for hearing aids.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biological USA UC San Diego Point-of-care multi-cancer
Dynamics screening tool that detects early
cancer biomarker directly from
whole blood.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digiceipts USA Cornell A paperless receipt solution that
University enables consumers to manage
receipts online and provides
product-level market data to
consumer product companies.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DripTech USA Stanford Innovative drip irrigation systems
University that can be manufactured and
profitably distributed to small
farmers in developing countries.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Five Minutes China University of Innovative online social games
Southern including Happy Farm, the number
California one social game in China.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mengtian China Fudan University A fast-acting, low-cost and
Biotech environmentally friendly process
for treating papermaking
wastewater.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Husk Power India/USA University of Miniature power-plants that cost-
Virginia, Darden effectively convert rice husks
School of into electricity, serving off-grid
Business rural Indian villages.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
iCore Russia Moscow Institute OS-level virtualization software
of Physics and enabling multiple secure high-
Technology performance virtual machines on a
Microsoft Windows desktop.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Innoz India LBS College of An SMS text messaging interface
Engineering for trivia and other information
for 300 million Indian cell phone
subscribers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mercardi USA University of An online marketplace for the
Chicago, sale or exchange of unwanted gift
Booth School cards.
of Business
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PowerSave Brazil Federal An advanced smart-home technology
University of platform to monitor and interact
Rio de Janeiro with appliances and the electric
grid for the efficient use of
energy in the home.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Properat USA Stanford Assistance for enterprise users to
University manage the growing volume of
e-mail and to seamlessly embrace
new messaging media.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trauma USA University of The first and only synthetic
Solutions Maryland hemostatic material capable of
simultaneously inducing blood
clotting and delivering
therapeutics.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yubitech Israel Tel-Aviv A mobile thin client and server
University platform for migrating any
software application to any
smartphone, regardless of
operating system and handset type.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZeroWatt USA UC Irvine A significant reduction in the
power consumption of analog-to-
digital converters, a key
component of essential devices
such as cell phones, laptops and
biomedical implants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson ("DFJ") backs extraordinary entrepreneurs everywhere who set out to change the world. DFJ achieves its mission through its DFJ Global Network of Partner Funds. Together, DFJ and the Network manage over $6B and have made more than 600 investments on four continents. With a 24-year history of success across diverse sectors and market conditions, DFJ has led the way investing in emerging technologies, from the Internet and life sciences to clean energy and nanotechnology. DFJ has been proud to back over 500 companies across many sectors including such industry changing successes such as Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), United Online (UNTD), Overture (acquired by YHOO), Athenahealth (ATHN), EnerNOC (ENOC), TicketsNow (acquired by TicketMaster), Feedburner (acquired by Google), Interwoven (IWOV), Four11 (acquired by YHOO), Parametric (PMTC), and Digidesign (acquired by AVID). The DFJ Network includes DFJ, DFJ Athena, DFJ Dragon, DFJ Esprit, DFJ FIR, DFJ Frontier, DFJ Gotham, DFJ Growth, DFJ InCube, DFJ Mercury, DFJ Portage, DFJ Tamir Fishman, Draper Triangle, DFJ Vina, DFJ-VTB Aurora, Element Partners, and Epic Ventures. For more information, please go to www.dfj.com.
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.
For direct RSS Feeds of all Cisco news, please visit "News@Cisco" at the following link:
