IBM and KPN have joined forces to bring the Global Mobile Innovators Tournament to the Netherlands. Finalists are invited to demonstrate their application on stage at the 4YFN startup festival during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the largest Mobile event in the world (93.000 participants) and will be invited to private meetings with investors and potential partners.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has rapidly become one of the most familiar (and perhaps, most hyped) expressions across business and technology, but the hype is absolutely justified and backed up by the numbers. The world will see 25 billion "connected things" by 2020 and is estimated to produce close to $2 trillion of economic benefit globally. KPN and IBM are investing heavily in state of the art IoT technology such as LoRa or IoT platform as-a-service IBM Bluemix but realize that technology alone is not enough to develop the new generation of disruptive IoT applications. Innovative ideas from developers and startup ecosystems are essential to take advantage of business opportunities that IoT offers. To actively support these ecosystems, KPN launched the IoT Academy in Rotterdam and IBM opened the IBM Innovation Space in B.Amsterdam but with the Global Mobile Innovators Tournement, IBM and KPN challenge developers and startups from all over the world to participate and develop and submit innovative IoT applications.