cisco innovation grand challenge

Calling all IoT Trailblazers!

$250,000 in awards to jumpstart your venture!

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awards

1st Place
$150,000
2nd Place
$75,000
3rd Place
$25,000

IN ADDITION TO CASH AWARDS, WINNERS WILL HAVE ACCESS TO

MENTORING FROM CISCO & PARTNERS
Collaboration with industry and business experts, 1-1 mentoring.
WORKING WITH CISCO IoE INNOVATION CENTERS
Take your venture forward by developing, testing and piloting new solutions with Cisco and ecosystem partners.
PITCHING AT THE IoT WORLD FORUM IN DUBAI
Awards Ceremony for the 3 winners will be held at the IoT World Forum in Dubai.
POTENTIAL PARTNERSHIP & INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Pitch your solution to the Cisco Investments team, potential business acceleration and joint go-to-market strategy.






the challenge

Are you building an industry-disrupting or innovative digital solution leveraging the Internet of Things?



With less than 1% of things in the physical world connected to the Internet, there is an incredible opportunity to connect the unconnected, creating vast opportunities to transform businesses and industries by re-inventing business processes, operational efficiencies and customer service innovations. The Cisco Innovation Grand Challenge will recognize startups, entrepreneurs and developers around the world with the most breakthrough digital technologies, products or business models across a variety of categories.



This is your chance to demonstrate what you can create by connecting people, processes, data and things!
Get started now or visit the FAQ page to learn more.

categories

We are looking to recognize best ventures in the following categories:


INFRASTRUCTURE
In the IoT, the things (devices, sensors, actuators, and end-systems) rely on an infrastructure that provides secure network connectivity, storage and services that enable connected applications. This infrastructure needs to be adaptive and programmable and hide the complexity of the various wired and wireless connectivity and protocol options, while also meeting the needs of a diverse set of devices and applications.
MIDDLEWARE, PLATFORM & FRAMEWORKS
While a comprehensive landscape of IoT software is still emerging, it is already evident that a broad ecosystem of technology partners with industry-specific expertise is brewing. Application enablement platforms with rich set of open APIs, integrated development/test/deployment environments, common frameworks for persistence/workflow/event management, etc. will provide highly flexible solution creation capabilities across partners, integrators and other 3rd party developers.
DATA ANALYTICS & APPLICATIONS
One of the biggest drivers in the IoT value chain is data and insights resulting from connecting the unconnected. Applications that provide domain-specific predictive observations, events/alerts, end-to-end optimizations, analytics, etc. could be a game changer for the IoT software scene. Machine learning algorithms and Augmented/Virtual Reality applications capable of running in resource-constrained IoT environments could trigger exponential revenue growth.
SECURITY
The convergence of physical and cybersecurity solutions that address the full attack continuum - before, during, and after an attack - is essential for IoT. Cloud-based threat protection, cyber intelligence, response automation, network and perimeter security, user and group based identity services, video analytics, secure physical access - are some example elements of such systems. Support for IT and OT (industrial) protocols and policies that integrate security and dramatically reduce response times throughout an organization will be highly valued in the future.
FOG COMPUTING
Fog computing extends the cloud paradigm to the edge, closer to end devices (sensors, machines, cars, etc.) Fog addresses unique challenges within the IoE vision, such as increased data volumes from end devices, low latency responses, security, rapid mobility, and autonomy, which arise from increased connectivity of people, processes, data and things.






verticals



While we would like to focus on the verticals below, we encourage all submissions.



MANUFACTURING
SMART CITIES AND TRANSPORTATION
ENERGY

timeline

OPEN SUBMISSIONS
  • Fill out team questionnaire by clicking the Apply button to describe your venture, problem, solution, customers, competitors, status, and risks
SEMIFINALISTS ANNOUNCED OCT 5
SEMIFINALS
  • Pitch Deck
  • Q&A
  • Business Canvas
  • Evidence of Working Prototype / Proof of Concept
  • Video Pitch
FINALISTS ANNOUNCED NOV 23
FINALS
  • Any additional information requested by final jury
  • 5 min investor pitch + Q&A in front of finals panel
WINNERS ANNOUNCED
  • 3 winners will be announced at the IoT World Forum in Dubai.



past winners

Relayr

German startup Relayr was one of the winners of the 2014 Cisco Internet of Things Innovation Grand Challenge. The full integration of relayr OpenSensor Cloud with the Cisco Energy Management platform followed only a few weeks after. The Cisco partnership brings long term data storage and aggregation, visualization and big data analytics on a global scale to the relayr platform. Relayr is also a Cisco Intercloud Partner and is now included in the Cisco pricelist with products and services. In addition, Cisco IoE Innovation Centers across the world are utilizing the relayr Wunderbar sensors in their different prototyping projects, and relayr is regularly showcased in various Cisco Hack-a-thon Events and Cisco Live Conferences. Based on the relayr “IoT innovation acceleration” process, the teams jointly address projects in different industries across the globe. At the Cisco openBerlin IoE Innovation Center, Relayr is used for rapid IoT prototyping, from Proof-of-Concept to market ready solutions.

Aircloak

Aircloak is one of the proud winners of the 2014 Cisco Security Grand Challenge. Aircloak's first-of-breed anonymizing analytics solution enables companies to share and monetize their user data without risk of violating individual privacy. Since winning the Challenge in 2014, Aircloak has been partnering with the Cisco’s openBerlin IoE Innovation Center to integrate its solution with Cisco products such as the Cisco Mobility Services Engine and the Cisco Unified Computing System. "Working closely with Cisco has been an invaluable experience", says CEO Felix Bauer. "They have introduced us to numerous business divisions but also to Cisco partners and customers. This really helped us refine our story and business model. Being able to tell investors we are working with Cisco doesn't hurt either!" Aircloak has recently reached a key milestone. It is being certified for all anonymization use cases by TÜViT, the data protection division of TÜV, the largest and best-known certification and testing organization in Germany. Aircloak is currently running trials with use cases as diverse as health care, user geo-location, smart buildings, and network monitoring. Last but not least, Aircloak was just selected for the Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence Program and will thus be continuing its journey with Cisco!

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FAQ

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TERMS & CONDITIONS

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CONTACT

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CONTACT