startupmania

The start-up Panoramic Power, which develops an innovative solution for monitoring electricity usage, was chosen to represent Israel in the finals of IBM’s SmartCamp. The descision was announce in a festive ceremony held last Thursday at the IBM House in Petach Tikva. The event, produced by People & Computers, saw five companies compete for the lucrative title.

The competition’s early stages saw over 70 start-ups compete, out of which, ten were chosen to move on to the next phase. The competition was aimed at Israeli companies founded less than three years ago, privately owned, who are developing a product meant to integrate in IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative. Local competitions such as this are being held in 6 other cities around the world: Boston, San Francisco, London, Paris, Dublin and Stockholm. A representative from each will arrive at Dublin in November for the final, where the winner will be awarded the title “World’s Smartest Start-Up”.

The judges in the Israeli competition were: Uzia Galil - one of the local high-tech industry’s forefathers, Yoram Tiz – CEO of Ernest & Young Israel, Rali Meridor – VP of the Israeli Post Service’s Information System, Oded Cohen – Manager of IBM’s Haifa-based Research Labs and Dan Yachin – Research Manager at IDC Israel.

Panoramic Power is developing a cheap solution for monitoring electricity usage on the individual circuit level. The system allows the owners and managers of commercial buildings to minimize electricity usage by 15-20% as well as predict and prevent malfunctions, overloads and electrical fires. An exact mapping of a building’s electrical system, which is enabled once the system is operational, will lead to a better management of the building, while incorporating energy cost in ERP systems. This solution, on which a patent request has been filed, utilizes cheap wireless sensors with a software offered as a service. The company employs 4 employees and operates out of the basement of one of its founders in Kidron. The company’s founders are Adi Shamir and David Almagor, who worked together in the semi-conductor field and communications, as well as Cory Selka, a former executive in Microsoft. Work on the system started in April ’09, on private funding by the partners, joined by a private investor.

When notified of their victory, Almagor said that he is “scared if [he] does not win the competition in Ireland, [he] will not be able to return to Israel.” The event was hosted by Peli HaNamer – president and founder of People & Computers, and was opening words were said by Gabi Tal – director at IBM Europe, which is responsible for maintaining contact with software developers.