New York-listed computer company IBM will on Thursday pick the global entrepreneur of the year at its SmartCamp world finals being held over three days in Ireland.
Nine finalists are pitching their business plans at the IBM-run competition to create a "smarter planet".
Start-ups in IBM’s global entrepreneur initiative receive free software and project development support from the company’s 38 innovation centres.
The 2010 SmartCamp World finalists are:
CareCloud– Enables a digital ecosystem for the healthcare industry on the internet.
LindCom– Measures and reports the volume of stored commodities.
Panoramic Power– Monitors electrical power.
Predect– Online water quality monitoring software.
Sproxil– Mobile phone validation of medicine in emerging markets.
Streetline– Software to help people finding car parking.
TreeMetrics– Measures forests by three dimension imaging.
VisioHost– Healthcare image archive service.
WorldSensing– Wireless sensing equipment for industry.
Jim Corgel, general manager of IBM independent software vendor and developer relations, said: "These finalists represent the best and brightest thinking from the next generation of entrepreneurs.
"IBM welcomes these startups into its business partner ecosystem and looks forward to bringing the winning idea forward to our enterprise customers."