If you’ve caught tonight’s episode of Angel’s Gate, you would know that Flocations, a Singapore-based startup, turned down a quarter of a million dollars from the judges. Their main reason? The cash was insufficient given the terms offered.

“We’ve worked on our company for almost a year, spending hours agonizing over the numbers and producing the best code. Why would we only take 15 seconds to make a decision that signs away a third of our company?”

Angel’s Gate is a reality show on Channel NewsAsia where entrepreneurs pitch to investors on TV with the hopes of getting an investment.

After going through a 30 second pitch in an elevator, followed by another presentation in the room where the four angels sat, the co-founders Tudor Coman and Florian Cornu asked for US$500,000 in return for 30 percent. Instead, they were offered half of that, for 33 percent of the company, plus mentorship.

Tudor then countered by offering 20 percent equity instead, but the judges decided against it and killed the deal.

Nonetheless, Tudor still thinks entrepreneurs should apply for the show.

“It was all great fun, and of course we’re pleased they saw value and made an offer, even though we declined. Angel’s Gate was still an amazing opportunity for us to spread the word about our product. I’m excited that our message will be nationally televised to let users know that there are better ways to travel,” said the entrepreneur.

Flocations is a startup that is developing an online search-by-price air travel directory, which is a very competitive segment of the travel industry.

They are also one of twelve startups at the ongoing 100-day JFDI-Innov8 Bootcamp which sees companies develop from idea stage to a prototype (SGE‘s coverage of the bootcamp).

The duo will be pitching again at the bootcamp’s Demo Day on 4th May.

“We’re already in contact with investors, but since our business is growing at an extreme rate, it is difficult to agree on a valuation right now,” said Tudor, “we’re going to be extending an invitation to the Angels again on Demo Day, and perhaps, at that time, they will take our terms.”

Forum Nokia’s Calling All Innovators competition is back again for 2010. Here’s the challenge to create great apps and content for Nokia mobile devices.

Here’s a video introduction:

Contest Categories

Eco/Being Green
Like its name implies, this category challenges developers to help save the planet with innovative, eco-friendly applications for use on Nokia devices.

Entertainment
Here’s your chance to submit apps that rock, and show off the coolest multimedia features that are available on the latest Nokia mobile devices. This includes music, multimedia and games.

Productivity
This category seeks mobile applications that make consumer’s daily lives easier and help them to be more efficient, such as utilities, business, or personal finance applications.

Life Improvement
This category seeks applications that positively affect the daily lives of people living in developing countries, and may include education, agriculture, health and more.

The deadline for the above categories is 10th June. (We are publishing this just a little before the deadline but we still hope this will be useful to some.)

This year, the contest also has a fifth category that truly stands alone:

Growth Economy Venture Challenge
Nokia’s Calling All Innovators competition has always been about trying to find the best big ideas for mobile applications from developers around the world. This year, Nokia is taking that desire to find big ideas to a whole new level. (This category is an entire challenge in itself, with a deadline of 31st July.)

Read this for more details on each category.

Cash Prizes

Grand Prize: 30,000 USD in cash.
2nd Prize: 15,000 USD in cash.
3rd Prize: 5,000 USD in cash.

Special prizes:
Best application for the Nokia N900: $50,000 (USD) in cash.
Best cross-platform application using Qt: $50,000 (USD) in cash.
Best mobile computing application: $50,000 (USD) in cash, plus the winner of this special prize will be included in a multi-million dollar global marketing campaign that will be used to help promote the winning app.
Best locally relevant application with global potential: $15,000 (USD) in cash.

More details and other non-cash prizes here.

Here’s a reason to be inspired, local company, 2C2P took part last year and won the Grand Prize under the Emerging Markets & Mobile Necessities Category.

Submit your entry now.

Not only was 2C2P’s Mobile Credit Card Terminal the only Singapore finalist, it was also selected as top 3 in two categories: Emerging Markets and Mobile Necessities. A demo of all the finalists can be viewed here.

2C2P’s Mobile Credit Card Terminal gives business owners the ability to charge a credit or debit card and to manage transactions securely and smoothly from Nokia S60 devices without the need for additional equipment. The application uses a standard Card Not Present message format, bypassing the need for a cardholder signature.

If 2C2P does win the competition, they will get a cash award (Updated: 2C2P will get at least 10k in cash no matter) and the opportunity to demo at Nokia World in Stuttgart, Germany come September 2009. They will also be highlighted on the newly announced Ovi Store so that the winning apps will have more visibility.

2C2P has been funded by Expara IDM Ventures and MDA under the iJAM programme.

This is your chance to show your talent, let your creativity bloom, and even see your application on millions of Nokia devices around the world. Forum Nokia, Nokia’s global developer programme, challenges mobile and web application developers worldwide to submit best-in-class applications for use on Nokia devices.

The Calling All Innovators contest is open to anyone with bold ideas and tremendous talent. Whether you’re new to mobile or an experienced coder, you could win up great prizes along with new opportunities to grow your business.

Developers can submit applications for the 2009 Calling All Innovators contest in these categories: Internet Innovation, Flash, Emerging Markets and Mobile Necessities.

The countdown has begun! Submissions for the contest will be accepted until 30 June 2009, and the winners will be announced in September 2009.

Find out more here.

Get Inspired: Out of the 11 finalists for the 2008 contest, 3 were from Asia-Pacific.

Nokia’s global developer program, Forum Nokia, organized a global mobile developer contest that seeks to create mobile applications and services that help build a better world. Nearly 1,000 developers answered the call and 11 finalists were announced. Nokia will award up to USD 150,000 in cash and prizes to the ultimate winners, in addition to helping the winning developers distribute their mobile applications worldwide.

Out of the 11 finalists, 3 were from the Asia-Pacific region – two from India, one from Thailand.

A complete list of Forum Nokia’s Calling All Innovators finalists including video demonstrations of the applications can be found online at www.callingallinnovators.com. Following are the APAC finalists in the Calling All Innovators global contest:

ECO-Challenge: Applicants were asked to submit applications or solutions that can minimize mobility’s global environmental impact and enable consumers to make sustainable lifestyle choices that reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint.

Green Phone (India) – An S60 application maximizing battery life through improved regulation of device backlight, WLAN, Bluetooth and charger power consumption.

Emerging Markets: This category focused on making improvements in the daily lives of millions in developing nations, calling on developers to create new mobile solutions for areas such as education, health data access, infotainment and agriculture.

Nano Ganesh (India) – This application allows farmers in India to establish remote contact with distant, modem-equipped electric irrigation pumps , to check on power supply and pump operation without the need to travel long distances

Technology Showcase: This category highlights compelling applications for individuals or communities that are focused on the end-user experience and are built using Flash Lite, Java, Python, open source or other technologies supported by Series 40 or S60 devices.

Neuscreen (Thailand) – This application utilizes the drawing, touch-screen and camera functionalities of a Nokia N95 device connected to a normal television set to track the motion of a simple pen light and enable “virtual” drawing, as well as projection and manipulation directly on the TV screen of images stored on the mobile device.

Winners will be announced on February 17, 2009 at Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona during the Forum Nokia Calling All Innovators Award Ceremony. All the finalists will receive paid travel and accommodations to Mobile World Congress. First place winners in each category will receive USD 25,000 and distribution of their winning applications for free through a variety of Nokia channels. Second place winners in each category will receive USD 10,000 and third place winners will receive USD 5,000.

About Forum Nokia

Nokia’s global developer program, Forum Nokia connects developers to tools, technical information, support, and distribution channels they can use to build and market applications around the globe. From offices in the U.S., Europe, India, Japan, China, and Singapore, Forum Nokia provides technical and business development support to developers and operators to assist them in achieving their goal of successfully launching applications and services to consumers and enterprises. More information is available at www.forum.nokia.com.

Additional Link:
Indian startups develop energy-saving mobile phone tech

Your mobile device is an mp3 player, a web access tool, your camera and game console = your world. But you already knew that – and chances are you’re involved in the design of the next killer mobile application.

Java. Web development. Linux. Flash. Python. Developer. Community.
Whether you’re doing this for personal pleasure (read: geek cred) or because you want to take your business into the mobile space – developers like you are setting the standard for the future of mobile communications by changing the way we live, work and play – on our mobile devices.

Did you know? Nokia sells 1.5 million handsets a day using Symbian S60 and Series 40.

Why is this important to developers?

Nokia drives mobile innovation by providing developers with the tools and platform to capitalize their BIG IDEA into the next killer mobile application. Through Forum Nokia, one of the largest mobile developer communities in the world with about 3.5 million registered developers, you and developers like you have access to hundreds of millions of users whose appetite for mobile applications, content, and services is insatiable.

Calling All Innovators

Nokia has thrown down the next big challenge to innovators – don’t just change the way people communicate and connect with mobile technology; CHANGE THE WORLD! Calling All Innovators challenges developers to innovate along three lines : applications that have a positive impact on the environment and sustainability, applications that unleash possibilities for people living in rural areas and emerging markets and finally, experience driven applications that push developers to innovate new ways in which consumers can connect with mobile technology. As a professional developer, web developer, a content developer, Calling All Innovators challenges developers to show the world how to be a true innovator.

Not only can winning developers see their applications deployed across Nokia’s mobile devices, but there’s a heap of money, and a trip to Mobile World Congress to be won!

Deadline: 15th Dec 2008