Press Releases

Lisbon, 27 July 2011 – The Portuguese company Hole 19 (www.hole19golf.com), the creator of the project of the same name, has been selected as one of the seven finalists in the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011 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 15 and 16 September at the PICNIC media, entertainment and technology festival in Amsterdam, Holland.

Hole 19 presented a project aimed at golfers, golf coaches and golf circuits which uses an app and a web platform to record and analyse the player’s progress, either alone or jointly with the coach.

Hole 19 was chosen as the best Portuguese entry by a jury consisting of two representatives of Vodafone Portugal and four national and international figures (Pedro Oliveira – Director of the computer and gadget magazines Exame Informática and Stuff Portugal, Mário Valente – Partner of Maverick SGPS and Manager of the Seed Capital risk fund, Rudy de Waelle – creator of Mobile 2.0 Europe, and Yuri VanGeest – founder of Mobile Monday and TEDx Amsterdam), who assessed factors such as originality and innovation, technical and financial feasibility, value for users and quality of the management team.

Apart from Hole 19, the list of best entries included four Portuguese start-ups which submitted the nPolls (www.npolls.com), Mobizy (www.mobizy.com), Weddar (www.weddar.com) and Wizdee (www.wizdee.com).projects.

At the international final, Hole 19 will compete for the award of best Mobile Internet start-up against projects selected by the other Vodafone operators participating in the competition: Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Turkey. At stake is a total of €225,000 for the three best projects: a first prize of €150,000 and second and third prizes of €50,000 and €25,000.

As well as the money prize, there is the guarantee of very significant international exposure and boost to the businesses of these start-ups. A case in point is the Portuguese start-up Cardmobili (www.cardmobili.com), winner of the 2010 international final which has seen its business grow since then, not only in Portugal but also in other countries.

The Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011 competition, launched at the beginning of May, has once again been well received by the Portuguese technology community, demonstrating the importance of the role played by Vodafone in stimulating and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in Portugal as well as in raising the international visibility of these types of projects and contributing to the export of the best of Portuguese technology.