UK start-ups dominate PepsiCo European top 10 competition

Eight UK start-ups have made the final shortlist of ten in a competition designed to help discover and support emerging firms run by US firm PepsiCo in another boost for the UK's technology scene.

The PepsiCo10 competition was run in the US last year, and a European version was launched in June. The company received 130 applications, and has now narrowed the field to the final 10.

One of the eight shortlisted firms from the UK is Slingshot Shopping, a digital commerce operation set up by two recent university graduates that allows customers to have one online shopping basket for all web sites.

Shahmoon, meanwhile, allows businesses to use 46in HD video posters to interact with passers-by, feed live information or tweet directly to the street.

Bonin Bough, global director of digital and social media at PepsiCo, told V3 that around 60 per cent of the applications were from the UK and he said the nation's start-ups have different strengths to those in the US.

"There are a lot of 'second screen' technologies in the US, but there are
a lot more mobile and e-commerce offerings in the UK," he said.

"I am bullish that the UK start-up scene is really coming."

Bough noted, however, that start-ups in Europe have less investment from venture capitalists than in the US, and that the different university structure in Europe sees less innovation coming out of dorm rooms.

PepsiCo will support the 10 start-ups for a year with marketing programmes, and may continue a relationship with some of them on an ongoing basis and is set to launch a similar competition in Asia next year.

The success of UK firms in the competition follows on from Huddle announcing on Monday that it had seen its earnings treble in the past three months and that it plans to open offices in the US as the UK technology scene starts to make headlines.