Sonder Design’s innovative E Ink keyboard was judged best at GMIC+Sydney’s pitch competition.
Sydney company Sonder Design took first place in the PitcHub competition for startups at GMIC+Sydney, winning a trip to China for the GMIC Beijing Startup Battle Finals.
The Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) is one of Asia’s largest tech events, and the recent GMIC+Sydney was the first time it was held in Australia.
Sonder Design has developed a Bluetooth keyboard that uses E Ink to display the key legends. This allows it to display a variety of different layouts including QWERTY and Dvorak, as well as icons to represent keyboard shortcuts (for Photoshop or InDesign, for example).
Custom layouts can be created for particular programs or languages – or to replace sequences of commands with a single keystroke - and then shared with other users.
The Sonder keyboard works with computers, tablets and smartphones.
“GMIC was an incredible opportunity for Sonder Design to present our vision and network along with other talented startups exploring the global market. We are excited to pitch at the 10th anniversary GMIC Beijing conference in 2018,” said Sonder Design founder and CEO Francisco Serra-Martins.
The judging panel included CSIRO Main Sequence Ventures partner Phil Morle, Galaxy Group international department general manager Jing Guo, Qualgro VC co-founder and partner Peter Huynh, and Cicada Innovations CEO Petra Andrén.
According to GMIC+Sydney managing director Caroline Gu, the event was a resounding success attended by more than 1000 people.
“We were very excited to bring this event to Australia for the first time. We’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback from the attendees across a range of industries.
“GMIC+Sydney now occupies a unique position on the Australian tech calendar as the only event that bridges the gap between Australian and Chinese innovation at such scale.”
GMIC+Sydney will return in 2018, she added.
