The Application Developers Alliance has launched ‘IoT{Accelerate}Berlin’, a competition for developers and pre-launch start-ups, with the aim of finding “the most innovative IoT solution, product, and/or business idea and bring it to market.”

The competition, to be held in March in partnership with Ericsson and Google, will be based around a 48-hour programme of workshops, concept planning and an industry pitch. Prizes include €20,000, mentorship from industry experts and funding to attend key IOT events.

“IoT is experiencing substantial growth, and the opportunity for European developers and startups to help shape its future is clear. From connected cars and homes to health, wearables, or big data solutions, the competition will help developers conceptualise and produce innovative products for this growing market,” said Jake Ward, executive director, Application Developers Alliance.

With connected devices projected to reach 50 billion by 2020, and global economic impact to top $1 trillion, the incentives for developers to tackle the challenges emerging from IoT are substantive, the alliance said in a statement.