Cisco announces BIG winner

After months of searching, Snap Fashion takes the crown, beating five other finalists in a Dragons' Den-style finale

Cisco has announced the winner and runners-up of its long-awaited British Innovation Gateway (BIG) Awards 2012.

The finale of the event, which had more than 300 entries and was originally launched in February 2011, saw the final six engage in a Dragons' Den-style pitch to a panel of judges.

On the panel were Cisco chief executive Phil Smith; Mark Kimber, EMEA CTO of JP Morgan Chase; John Harris, global head of IT strategy at GSK; Jon Lonsdale, managing director of PR firm Octopus; Richard Eaton, partner at legal practice Bird & Bird; and Drew Nicholson, managing director of marketing consultancy DNX. After a hotly contested final, Snap Fashion – an app which allows users to take a picture of an article of clothing on their phone and find similar items from more than 110 UK retailers – was crowned the winner.

Jenny Griffiths, founder of Snap Fashion, was presented with a cheque for $100,000 (£62,000) and also grabbed a prize package consisting of $30,000 of marketing support, $30,000 worth of PR support and a further $15,000 in legal support.

She said: “To win a competition like the Cisco BIG Awards is just amazing. I am particularly excited about the fact we get PR and marketing support because it is something we have been wanting for ages. The money will also help us to make key new hires and grow the team, allowing us to really take Snap Fashion to the next level in the UK. The competition was incredibly tough so I am delighted that the judges thought Snap Fashion was a winning idea.”

Runners-up were Digital Shadows, which pocketed a cheque for $25,000 and Six3 which was given a $10,000 cheque. Both will receive 12 months of business support from Cisco and legal advice from Bird & Bird.

The aim of the Cisco BIG Awards is to discover and reward the finest examples of the UK’s most innovative start-up digital businesses and SMBs. Due to be held annually over the next five years, the competition is a key component to Cisco’s BIG initiative – a significant five-year investment of cash, technology and human resources that aims to develop the UK’s innovation ecosystem and create an environment in which start-up digital businesses and their ideas can flourish.

In a statement, Cisco's Smith said: “Congratulations to our BIG Award winners Snap Fashion, Digital Shadows and Six3. We are extremely proud of this competition, which has presented us with some truly outstanding talent and we are absolutely delighted to offer our support to the winners. Each of the entries this year demonstrated impressive entrepreneurial spirit and skill, which is a testament to how much undiscovered talent lies in the UK. We are looking forward to working more closely with all of our winners and seeing what the future holds for them.”

FURTHER INFO

The objectives of the Cisco BIG Awards are to:

• Help winners and other innovators accelerate their speed to market for their product, technology, proof of concepts or prototype

• Prove that technology can significantly accelerate the process by harnessing clusters of incubation, innovation and research

• Accelerate community learning and skills around entrepreneurship and science, technology, engineering and mathematics

• Drive adoption of new Smart+City solutions and create new business opportunities

• Raise awareness of Cisco’s role as an innovation leader and its active partnership with governments and global communities