SA startup selected as one of Techcrunch’s ‘Best New Startups’

The TechCrunch Europas, the European Startup Awards for tech companies, has listed Cognician, a South African technology startup, as one of the top 11 Best New Startup’s in 2010.

The Europas serve to honour the best technology companies and startups across the web and mobile space. The awards span 22 categories and recognise and celebrate the most compelling technology startups, internet and mobile innovations of the past year.

Cognician, the original thought processor that presents content in the form of provocative questions, helps users to apply the author’s ideas to their own tasks, so that they can think better, further and faster.

The company was selected through a process done by referencing TechCrunch’s database of tech companies on CrunchBase. This was followed by a month of online public voting that saw 33 126 votes being cast across all categories. The final award winners will be determined based both on popular votes received through website voting and the results submitted by The Europas Advisory Board.

The winners will be revealed at The Europas event which will be held in London this Friday, November 19. The evening will be attended by over 350 people from the cream of Europe’s startups, VCs and entrepreneurs along with industry leaders of the the tech startup and investor scene who will be presenting the awards to the winners.

Says Patrick Kayton, co-founder and COO of Cognician: “We’re thrilled to be recognised through The Europas and we wish to send out a big thank you to everyone who voted for us. It is especially rewarding as the Europas finalists are determined by the tech community who were invited to have their say in which startups should be recognised. It’s quite remarkable that we’re there at all actually, as little or no votes would have been cast by our local network.”

“Cognician has made great strides in 2010 with limited resources and we see being nominated in the final 11 as testament to both the quality of Cognician and the work that our small team has put in,” adds Kayton.

“Prior to its soft launch in September, Cognician won the Cape Town Activa competition in the Ideas Track. Later, we were selected as one of Africa’s top three startups at Seedcamp Week Johannesburg and we were finalists at Seedcamp Week in London.”

Kayton explains that Cognician is currently making 70 original cogs for two leading corporate clients, namely The Allan Gray Orbis Foundation and Old Mutual. “Furthermore we’ve signed publishing deals with the UK-based publishers, Profile Books and Infinite Ideas which will enable Cognician to produce further cogs”.

“To now be recognised as a finalist in The Europa Awards is the cherry on the top of 2010,” concludes Kayton.