App-maker and video agency win uni kudos

Greg Whittred has welcomed funding from early winner Outpost Central.

Technology companies helping bring content to life reigned supreme at the University of Auckland Business School Entrepreneurs' Challenge.

Overall winners of the $1 million funding competition were app maker Stqry and cloud-based video production agency 90 Seconds.

Both will bank a share of business funding aimed at boosting their growth and plans for technology development.

Stqry, which has a mobile app of the same name used to deliver additional content at zoos, museums and art galleries around the world, will use the cash injection to grow its already illustrious client base and fund the development of "way-finding" technology that can be used inside airports, shopping malls and other large-scale destinations.

Plans for 90 Seconds, which matches firms seeking video content with freelancers around the world, include growing its international footprint and potentially a stock exchange listing down the track.

Online transcription agency TranscribeMe, which uses a mix of clever technology and a global pool of part-time transcribers to turn audio into text, is set to use $150,000 from the new EC-35 category for younger entrepreneurs to gain the ear of a specialist or director with expertise in scaling a technology business.

One of the Entrepreneurs' Challenge's first winners, Outpost Central, is back, making a balloon payment of about $60,000 to back the business school's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

When expat businessman Charles Bidwill set up the Entrepreneurs' Challenge the intention was for it to be an evergreen fund, said Business School dean Professor Greg Whittred.

"Outpost Central, one of the three winners of the inaugural Challenge, is the first to deliver on the commitment it made at the time it received the award to deliver some 'upside' - in this case, a balloon payment - to support the school and its activities in the entrepreneurial field.

"The Entrepreneurs' Challenge made a difference to Outpost Central ... six years ago, and the company has now in turn 'paid it forward' for future winners," Whittred said.