As the first ever Tech Crunch Disrupt Europe in London came to a close last night, Crate.io was announced as the winner of the highly sought-after Disrupt Cup.
The Berlin-based startup took home the £30,000 prize as well as the admiration (and probably envy) of the 14 startups they beat.
Crate.io helps companies set up data servers at the back-end of their services. Effectively, it gives users the power to set up huge databases and easily deal with the data in minutes.
The competition
TechCrunch London Battlefield started with a cohort of 15 startups who pitched their businesses on the first day of Disrupt Europe.
The startups were then whittled down to four finalists who pitched again on the second day of the conference.
The other finalists were Disease Diagnostic Group, Oscult by Oscadi and PhotoMath by MicroBlink.
A different type of development
There was a particular focus on international aid across the finalists, with both Disease Diagnostic Group and Oscult by Oscadi hoping to solve problems in less developed countries.
The former is an American company that has developed a reusable and portable device that uses magnets and a laser to diagnose malaria. It means that tests can now be sent to households whereas previously people would have had to travel to a medical centre.
Oscult, another piece of hardware, lets users perform ultrasounds when it is plugged into an iPad.
An apt app
Solving and helping international crises also featured in the Hackathon over the weekend.
The winner was Infected Flight, an app that models the spread of disease across the world.
The app takes into account live flight data and various infection parameters and is particularly apt given the fight against Ebola.