The first ever TechCrunch Disrupt Europe is drawing to a close today, after two days of incredible speakers and a dramatic pitch-off competition, not to mention the two day Hackathon that preceded the show itself. Only one of the four finalists (Import.io, Lock8, Voicesphere and Asap54) can ultimately emerge victorious.
The top fourteen teams were chosen from hundreds of applicants, and one lucky company – Integreight – was chosen based on audience response and editorial input after the first day of the show to become a fifteenth entrant. Each of the final four this year presented in front of a panel of judges including Michael Arrington of CrunchFund (and founder of TechCrunch), Index Ventures’ Neil Rimer, Lakestar founder Klaus Hommels, Dave McClure of 500 Startups, and Bindi Karia of Silicon Valley Bank.
After much deliberation and hand-wringing, the judges arrived at a decision regarding a winner and runner-up. So here’s your winner for the inaugural startup Battlefield Europe.
The Winner: Lock8
London and Berlin-based Lock8 is a startup that aims to make your bicycle more thief-proof. They’ve created a smart bike lock system that’s embedded with sensors to detect attempts to hack or bash it off, and even changes in temperature that might indicate freezing it or trying to get in with a blowtorch.
The team is launching a crowdfunding campaign to make the product a reality, and will eventually retail the Lock8 for $199 US, though it’ll only cost £69 according to the company’s founder and CTO Daniel Zajarlas-Fainsod. It’s also designed to be sold to municipalities to support their bike sharing programs and make them more cost-effective.
The Runner-Up: Asap54
Asap54 does fashion tech, which is a hot and growing space. It also combines image recognition and recommendation algorithms to help people buy the things they see, and the things that are similar to those things they see others wearing. It works by letting users snap a photo of the articles of clothing they want to purchase, and returning links to either the item itself, or to something very similar.
Asap54 has to contend with Pinterest and Instagram, to some extent, but it hopes its instant purchase options can help it stay ahead. It’s launching to 200 beta testers in a limited debut, and the team says it needs to build more feeds into the product to expand beyond a pool of 20,000 product which are initially identifiable.
