As a thriving innovation hub, São Paulo’s economic impact can be felt all across Brazil, South America and even the world. The city that is colloquially known as Sampa or Terra da Garoa (Land of Drizzle) will also be the host to the third installment of the AI Startup Battle powered by PreSeries and Telefónica Open Future_.

The AI Startup Battle is a one-of-kind startup contest, where five early-stage ventures compete on stage and are judged and ranked by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The AI is completely autonomous, no human intervention compromises the bias-free algorithm. How does it work? The contenders first pitch their startup and are then asked questions by the AI live on-stage. All the information gathered is then processed by the AI to generate a score from 0 to 100, which represents the startup’s long-term estimated likelihood of success. Paving the way for a more quantifiable early stage investing, previous editions of the battle were held in Valencia, Spain and Boston, USA as part of the PAPIs conferences.

The impending edition of the AI Startup Battle will be part of the Brazilian Summer School in Machine Learning 2016 (BSSML16). The contest is taking place on December 9 at the VIVO auditorium in São Paulo and is part of a series of Machine Learning courses organized by BigML in collaboration with VIVO and Telefónica Open Future_. BSSML16 is a two-day course for industry practitioners, advanced undergraduates, as well as graduate students seeking a fast-paced, practical, and hands-on introduction to Machine Learning. The Summer School will also serve as the ideal introduction to the kind of work that students can expect if they enroll in advanced Machine Learning masters.

Meet the contenders of the 1st Brazilian edition

PayGo Energy

PayGo Energy from Nairobi, Kenya believes in equal opportunities and seeks to democratize LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas or Propane) for the 2.9 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean cooking fuel. PayGo Energy allows families to purchase gas in small amounts, making LPG more affordable than ever. They operate on a pay-as-you-go basis. Their micro-payment structure critically aligns with existing consumer spending habits to overcome current cost barriers and enable access to a stable supply of cooking gas.

Dataholics

DATAHOLICS from São Paulo, Brazil provides a solution to detect the products and services that fit a given consumer profile based on his/her social media and demographic information. This rich data significantly improves the targeting of direct marketing campaigns, product recommendations for e-commerce, market research, database enrichment and the generation of highly qualified trade leads.

Prognoos

Prognoos built an artificial intelligence platform with a very low operational cost. Their first product presents a unique browsing experience with matchmaking algorithms. It uses e-commerce user interaction and browsing data to personalize their buying experience through its proprietary algorithm, assuring a good match between the ideal product to the right customer with the aim of decreasing the churn rate.

Kapputo

Kapputo is an information broker that uses Big Data and Machine Learning in order to allow real estate investors and construction companies to make better decisions by relying on analytics tools, prediction models that evaluate the impact of construction on a real estate market.

Saffe

What if you could pay with just a selfie? Saffe Payments is a mobile payment app that leverages world-class facial recognition technology to make your life easier and more secure.

Good luck to all participants, and stay tuned for the results for the Brazil’s first ever AI Startup Battle!