The brightest idea for the brightest business idea

A visual search engine has won the first of Cisco’s BIG Awards, which support innovative new start-ups

The BIG Awards programme will run for the next four years, with the aim of discovering excellence in innovation and business acumen from UK small enterprises and start-ups in targeted growth areas.

The competition, in partnership with JP Morgan, Bird & Bird, DNX and Octopus Communications, is a key component to Cisco’s British Innovation Gateway (BIG). By nurturing the growing businesses of tomorrow, Cisco is helping to build a brilliant future for technology innovation in the UK.

Faster and more innovative

The BIG awards main objective is to help the winners and other innovators accelerate their speed to market for their product. This year’s competition had more than 300 entries from which six finalists were chosen. The winner was Snap Fashion, a visual search engine that allows you to discover fashion based on images.

To help get Snap Fashion off to a flying start, it will be receiving a development and launch boost with marketing support worth $30,000, and the same again in both public relations support and legal services, as well as a 12-month business mentoring package from Cisco. An additional prize fund of $100,000 was also awarded.

The innovative online and mobile app won over the judges with its potential to wow the fashion world with its clever photo tracking functionality. Users can shop online by taking a photo on their mobile phone via the app or by posting a link to a clothing image on the Snap Fashion website.

Plans for the future

Snap Fashion is planning on using the awards to update its systems in the run up to Christmas, allowing people to keep track of the January sales. It also has plans for expanding onto Android and Microsoft mobile platforms, as well as launching a service in the New Year aimed at men.

Jennifer Griffiths, founder and CEO of Snap Fashion, said: “ Winning the Cisco BIG Awards has definitely been a highlight of the year for Snap Fashion. As well as the cash prize which is obviously very welcome to any start up, we are really looking forward to learning through the Cisco mentoring programme and of course get support from Bird and Bird, DNX and Octopus. We are now seeing benefits to the business as well as gaining the traction we wanted within the technology and investor communities and working with journalists and retailers we have only ever dreamed of. We have also been able to grow the business. We have high hopes for the New Year and can’t thank Cisco enough for its support.”

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