Russia’s Zeptolab and AlterGeo were honored last week in Berlin at the finale of The Europas, a contest for technology startups that attracted over 1,000 companies this year from all over the world.
The two companies have been judged as the “Best Russian Startups,” with Zeptolab getting two additional awards – the Best Gaming or Social Games Startup, and the Grand Prix.
AlterGeo was founded in 2008 to challenge Foursquare on the Russian market. Among the company’s achievements, which might explain its success at The Europas, are its hybrid geolocation technology which combines WiFi, WiMAX, GSM, GPS, CDMA IP, and several other methods as well as its deployment in Russia and Ukraine with more than 1 million mobile and web users.
This past November, AlterGeo launched an intelligent restaurant guide, christened Gvidi, a free iOS-app based on sophisticated collaborative filtering algorithms.
Mobile game publisher Zeptolab is famous for Cut The Rope, which has been downloaded over 250 million times since its launch in 2010, according to the company’s press service.
This record “marks [Zeptolab] as potentially the next Rovio/AngryBirds killer combination,” commented Mike Butcher of TechCrunch, who founded The Europas in 2009.
Cut The Rope in your hamburger
Thus far, ZeptoLab has released three other mobile games: Parachute Ninjas (2010), Cut the Rope: Experiments (2011) and Pudding Monsters (2012).
Now headquartered in London, the Russian startup has plans to release five brand new games in 2013, Zeptolab’s press service told East-West Digital News.
“We will continue to take steps towards developing our hit game Cut the Rope into a brand. Thus far, we’ve formed several licensing and merchandising partnerships with top names like Mattel, Hasbro, and Sony Picture Television, and we continue to explore new possibilities and opportunities to bring Om Nom and the Cut the Rope brand to fans in new ways.”
Zeptolab has also partnered with Burger King, whose young customers will soon be able to find Om Nom toys in kids’ meals along with an exclusive new game.
“2012 was a great year for us, and we’re looking forward to 2013 being an even more productive and exciting year,” Zeptolab’s press service stated, without disclosing, however, any financial data.
