Students
CONTACT:
Keri P. Mattox, 215-791-0105
kpm@threezerocommunications.com
Jordan Reese, 215-573-6604
jreese@pobox.upenn.edu
Kimling Lam, 408-718-4995
kimling.lam@meltwater.com
Norwegian IT Company Launches Social Innovation Award for Student Invention Competition
PHILADELPHIA, March 5, 2007 - The Weiss Tech House, a student-run hub of technological innovation at the University of Pennsylvania, announced today that Meltwater Group has become a sponsor and will be providing $2500 towards the Meltwater Social Innovation prize for PennVention 2008. PennVention is an annual student invention competition organized by the Weiss Tech House. The year-long entrepreneurial competition will conclude with an inventor's fair and student-founded company presentations that will be held in the Wu and Chen Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering on April 11th, 2008.
"Meltwater's culture and values set us apart," says Meltwater CEO, Jorn Lyseggen, "We believe that with the right support, guidance and encouragement, people can accomplish extraordinary things. Starting the Social Innovation award at PennVention represents our core beliefs in people's potential."
Meltwater Group was founded in Norway in 2001 with a starting capital of only $15,000 USD, and is now made up of 35 offices worldwide. Meltwater provides software solutions to over 10,000 clients globally and is the #1 player in the European market, with rapidly expanding operations in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Meltwater News is the first product division of the Meltwater Group. A global specialist in online media monitoring, Meltwater News delivers business-critical information and real-time intelligence on clients' media exposure, competitors, industry trends, and any other subject clients want to track in over 50,000 publications, over 1,500 blogs and 23 languages globally. Meltwater's technology-driven approach represents innovative solutions to old industry ineffiencies. Innovation and creative thinking are truly at the heart of Meltwater's philosophy.
In early 2008, Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) was launched in Ghana, West Africa. MEST is a not-for-profit NGO funded by Meltwater. The program trains and mentors Ghana's future software entrepreneurs. It is Meltwater's hope that the IT companies hatched through the MEST training program will inspire a future, prosperous African technology industry.
With such a strong background in innovation and social entrepreneurship, Meltwater is proud to sponsor the Social Innovation award at this year's PennVention competition.
For more information about PennVention 2008, please visit www.tech-house.upenn.edu.
ABOUT THE WEISS TECH HOUSE:
The Weiss Tech House is a student-run hub of technological innovation at the University of Pennsylvania that encourages and supports students in the creation, development and commercialization of innovative technologies. Students with a range of technological interest and skill can learn about technology, collaborate with peers, and take advantage of our in-house Innovation Fund, PennVention inventors' competition, educational workshops, speaker series, and business mentoring programs. For more information, visit www.tech-house.upenn.edu.
ABOUT MELTWATER GROUP:
Founded in Norway in 2001, Meltwater Group provides software solutions to over 10,000 clients worldwide, from non-profit organizations to Fortune 500 companies. Meltwater Group's companies enter high growth markets where innovative technologies challenge existing business models. We are aggressively growing on five continents and are global leaders in our industries.
For more information, visit www.meltwater.com.