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The Portuguese start-up CardMobili, the creator of the project of the same name, has been selected as one of the four finalists in the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2010 international competition to find and develop the best Mobile Internet project created by a start-up. The selection of the winner will take place on 24 September at the PICNIC media, entertainment and technology festival in Amsterdam, Holland.

The online service developed by CardMobili allows users to add to their phone all the customer and member points and discounts cards that normally accumulate in people’s wallets and use them by showing their phone. At present, the service brings together the world’s largest collection of such cards on mobile phones and is available in Portugal, the USA and Canada via apps for iPhone, Android and other mobile operating systems. A version will shortly be launched for the Vodafone 360 Apps Shop which will expand the offer to a further six European markets: Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

At the initial stage, CardMobili (www.cardmobili.com ) was selected as a pre-finalist by a jury consisting of representatives of Vodafone and mobile industry experts, including Luis Silva, CEO of WIT Software, and Vitor Domingos, founder of Mobile Monday Portugal and site editor of TheNextWeb in Portugal. Out of all the entries submitted, in addition to CardMobili, four other Portuguese start-ups were selected with their projects Cube (www.bitrzr.com ), Eunoia (www.eunoiacorp.com ), Live City (www.muchbeta.com ) and MobilePlux (www.plux.info ).

In the second phase, CardMobili was selected as the best entry submitted in Portugal and goes on to compete for the award of best Mobile Internet start-up against the projects submitted by other Vodafone operators participating in the competition. These include: Netherlands (Phone Akvo project), Spain (project Malcolm) and the UK (project Roulette Cricket). A total of €150,000 in prizes is available to be won, divided between a first prize of €100,000 and a second prize of €50,000. The prizes will be decided by the opinion of the jury and voting by the general public, which will be counted as equivalent to one jury member. Members of the general public can vote at www.vodafonemobileclicks.com/vote .

The Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition, which was launched on 27 July, has been very well received by the technological communities in the participating countries, and has resulted in a total of 160 entries. Regardless of the outcome of the competition and the final ranking of each project, Vodafone Portugal will maintain contact with the Portuguese participants with a view to exploring possible business opportunities related to their projects or others that emerge and prove interesting to both parties.

Full details of the competition and the participants are available online at www.vodafonemobileclicks.com .