November 20, 2016

The Global Entrepreneurship Network has announced its Top 10 finalists for Startup Open – the global competition to pinpoint the most promising young startups in the world – and two Israeli companies are on the list. The contest is one of the marquee events of Global Entrepreneurship Week, now underway.

BrighTap, a smart water meter sensor and that monitors water quality and consumption, and Karz, an app that provides drivers with adapted real-time alerts about their dangerous driving behavior, distracted driving and road conditions around them, are the two Israeli representatives in the contest.

“These individuals and cofounder teams are innovators on the verge of becoming industry disruptors – you see their promise and that they are ready to take their ventures to the next level,” said Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, about the 10 finalists. “This group of entrepreneurs, and others like them, are driving economic growth and social value in all economies and cultures of the world.”brightap-logo

The finalists were chosen from more than 1,000 founders from 101 countries. Entrepreneurs who had a “startup moment” between GEW 2015 and GEW 2016 were entitled to compete in the Startup Open.  Israel has two representatives on the list, India has two, and there’s one company from Colombia, Egypt, Kenya, Malta, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Karz logoThe winner of Startup Open will be announced on Jan. 5, 2017. The grand prize is an all-expenses-paid trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in March 2017.

This is the seventh time the contest is taking place. In 2014, BreezoMeter from Haifa took the grand prize for their application that measures real-time air quality and provides health recommendations to its users.

BreezoMeter is currently taking part in the inaugural Unreasonable Impact global partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group focused on scaling ventures that have the potential to employ thousands of people in industries that solve major environmental and societal problems.

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