Callsign has beaten 10 other start-ups to win the London stage of NTT DATA’s 2018 Global Open Innovation Contest, and its team will now fly to Tokyo, Japan to compete against entrepreneurs from around the world in the competition’s Grand Finale. Contestants will be competing for the chance to win a three-month in-kind contribution to support the development of their proposed new business, and an opportunity to break into the highly innovative Japanese market.

“The Open Innovation Contest is all about giving start-ups a platform to grow awareness of their businesses’ ideas and utilise the support of a global technology innovator in NTT DATA. Not only do they receive enviable support and guidance via direct access to senior business leaders, but also the chance to create a ‘triple-win’ partnership with NTT DATA and its clients to develop their business ideas,” said Kotaro Zamma, head of section of open innovation and business incubation, NTT DATA.

Callsign took the regional prize at an event held at Level39, Canary Wharf in London on 22^nd February, following a seasoned pitch by Daniel Grimes, VP, commercial strategy at the company.

Callsign, founded in 2012, has a company ethos that ‘Trust is Learned’ and has created a product that proactively defends data breaches with intelligence driven authentication. Callsign’s Intelligence driven authentication solution enables more informed and adaptive access control decisions, putting enterprises and their users back in control. Its clients are enterprises, financial institutions and consumer-facing digital services and include some of the world’s largest banks.

Daniel Grimes, VP, Commercial Strategy said: “We are incredibly honoured to have won the London heats of this contest, given the extent of the competition in the room - it’s an incredible opportunity for our team. To be recognised by a company like NTT DATA, who not only has the heritage but is also an innovator in the modern-day technology industry, is fantastic. The notion of building a global product with NTT DATA is an exciting prospect and we are looking forward to pitting our idea against other global start-ups in the Grand Finale.”

Tom Winstanley, NTT DATA UK’s Head of Innovation, said the contest reflects the company’s continued commitment to entrepreneurship and bringing new opportunities to clients: “The Open Innovation Contest is designed to unearth companies at the forefront of technological innovation addressing a range of specific challenges across industries, and it is an exciting opportunity to bring innovative knowledge and capability to our clients.”

This is the second year the contest has been run in the UK, and seventh time globally. Having achieved significant success in the company’s native Japan over the last three years, the contest has now expanded to 15 locations in 2018.

Winners of other regional heats to date include SightCall in San Francisco, a company that provides an open platform providing a complete set of connectors, APIs, SDKs and ready to use out of the box apps, and GESTOOS in Barcelona, which proposed a revolutionary way for humans to engage with technology.

Callsign will join these firms in the Grand Finale of the Global Open Innovation Contest 2018 in Tokyo on the 22^nd March 2018.