Midemlab announces finalists, France dominates IoT category

Midemlab announces finalists, France dominates IoT category
Events

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Reed-Midem has just announced the finalists for the 2015 edition of its top startup competition Midemlab, which is organized this year into three categories:  Music Discovery, Recommendation & Creation, Marketing, Social Engagement & Monetisation Solutions, and Hardware/Internet of Things. Midemlab is celebrating its 8th year and, for its 2015 edition had entries from over 40 countries and posted a 37% jump in applications.

The full-list of finalists is here, but here are a few highlights:

  • Europe, which is the home of many music tech icons including Spotify, Souncloud and Deezer, had a strong showing across all three categories
  • Perhaps given its strength in digital marketing and fintech, the UK had a really strong showing in the Marketing, Social Engagement & Monetisation Solutions.  France’s Vinyl it which enables users to make their own vinyl records, also made it into the top 10 in this category
  • France came out the leading country over all, with close to 1/3 of the finalists hailing from France
  • In the music discovery France had two finalists: Soundsgood, a music discovery service curated by influencers, and The Best Song, the ‘TripAdvisor’ for music
  • However, it was in the IoT/Hardware category where French startups stood out the most from the pack, claiming 6 of the 10 finalist spots. Two of the six actually pitched at our Paris Founders Event (PFE) last year.  Here’s the line-up:

FretX by Labana: Set to be launched Q1, FretX is a revolutionary device for guitar learning
Lucie Labs: The first smart & creative LED lighting wristband that augments your music experience
Phonotonic: Launched at our April 2014 PFE event, their Music Battle device, a unique and playful connected gaming experience based on music, was a big hit at CES earlier this year
Prizm: Launched at our October PFE event and dubbed as the ‘Nest for music’ or the ‘first thinking music player’, Prizm’s attachment for speakers plays music based on the mood of those in the room
Trak: Enables partygoers to leave the party with a playlist of their night
VideoStitch: Live 3D virtual reality Video
Winners will be announced during leading music industry conference and tradeshow Midem, taking place in Cannes June 5th-8th. Another big highlight of this year’s Midem will be participation of Hans-Holger Albrecht, who will give his first industry keynote since taking on the role of Deezer CEO.