London-Based Viewsy’s Retail Analytics Wins CeBIT Code_n Competition

London-based start-up Viewsy has been crowned the winner of this year’s Code_n competition, which called on young companies to submit their Big Data ideas, with 50 of the best invited to present their business models at the CeBIT exhibition in Hannover this week.

More than 450 applicants from 60 countries entered Code_n 2014, but it was Viewsy’s retail-based analytics proposal which convinced the ten members of the judging panel to award the start-up this years’ title, along with a €30,000 cheque.

“With their business models, all of our finalists add their own exciting touch to the topic of the future of Big Data,” said Ulrich Dietz, CODE_n founder and member of the judging panel.” With Viewsy, we award a young company that impressively demonstrates how large data volumes can be safely, intelligently, and profitably used with a technologically mature solution.”

Huge potential

Viewsy offers retailers the ability to understand customer behaviour through data sources such as average spend, the frequency that they visit and which parts of the store they visit, allowing businesses to make better decisions as to where they place certain items.

All data is anonymised, but customers have to switch off their Wi-Fi connection if they don’t want to participate.

“Viewsy had all the components of a winning company.  An innovative technology solution, solving real problems in the retail industry,” added Bindi Kariam, vice president of Origination and Entrepreneur Banking at Silicon Valley Bank and another member of the judging panel. “In particular, using in-store sensors connecting online with offline and using Big Data to generate customer insights and data, which can massively impact the bottom line of a retailer.

“The company has incredible potential to scale on a global basis, if current traction is anything to go by.”

Code_n Hall at CeBIT

All 50 finalists are displaying their wares in Hall 16 at CeBit, showing off projects in the areas of health, mobility, financial services and commerce. The specially designed hall is surrounded by a 12 metre high, 260 metre long fabric wall which visualises certain datasets in a 12.4 terapixel pattern.

For example, one segment shows a detailed map of the brain based on the most recent research, while another shows keyword usage trends in every book ever indexed by Google.

This year’s theme at CeBIT is ‘datability’, while the UK is the partner country for this year’s show. Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel formally opened CeBIT 2014 last Sunday, while leading tech figures, such as Lord Livingston, Joanna Shields and Sir Nigel Shadbolt have been invited to promote the UK IT industry.

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