Whatson Planner wins IE Business School’s Global Mobile Challenge

The competition attracted entries from over 2,000 teams based in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Russia, Asia and Africa. Today the 11 best entries competed in the competition final, held at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a key event for the mobile technology sector.

The second prize went to Raye7, a car-pooling app based in Egypt, and the third prize went to ArtAsian, an app based in Kyrgyzstan used for the worldwide sale of artisan products made in Central Asia. The three winning startups will enjoy an acceleration week with experts in entrepreneurial management from IE Business School. Whatson Planner, Raye7, and ArtAsian beat 8 other finalist projects from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East:

• Mali Mobile, a mobile transaction wallet for making payments in South Africa.
• Lipaplus a mobile solution designed to help Kenyan merchants manage their business.
• Gravilog, an interactive healthcare app for pregnant women in Palestine.
• Synoos, an educational project which helps kids to improve their Arabic language, mathematics and logic skills (Algeria).
• 1Export, a mobile solution for regulatory compliance and trade for SMEs in the Philippines.
• SafeChats, offering ultra-secure communications, teamwork and privacy for small businesses and individuals (Singapore).
• Gabsee, a solution whereby people can communicate with augmented reality technology (France).
• Kidsy, an app that enables caregivers to manage and document the teaching of children (Denmark).

“The winning team of the Global Mobile Challenge, which attracted some 2,000 teams from 6 continents, provides a prime example of how truly global the mobile phone really is, not only as a communication tool, but also on a social level, given that it changes the way we view the world,” said Paris L’Etraz, General Director of IE Business School’s Venture Lab.

IE Business School organized the competition in collaboration with 4YFN [4 Years From Now], the business platform for technology startups promoted by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, and Imtiaz and Jseed, which are based in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The aim of the competition is, in addition to giving recognition to the best mobile apps and solutions developed by young entrepreneurs, to facilitate contact with investors and experts in the field, and promote networking in the sector.