Amazon Web Services has relaunched its global $100,000 start-up challenge for start-ups using the amazon cloud service in the following platforms: big data, high performance computing, consumer or business applications. The competition is open to privately owned companies that have generated less than $10m in gross annual revenues and outside funding.
The AWS challenge is now in its sixth year. The winners in each category receive $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in AWS credits and services for a year. There is also exposure to potential investors.
Previous winners of the AWS challenge include video streaming platform company Ooyala and Fantasy Shopper. Ooyala is an online video management service which serves global media companies and consumer brands including ESPN and Yahoo! Japan. Fantasy Shopper was also successful with AWS. Fantasy Shopper is a social shopping game. The company recently received $3.3m in investment from Accel and NEA.
AWS’s challenge allows succesful startups to establish and quickly scale their Internet services without investing in their own data centers.