Rent, sell or share anything – without middlemen. That’s how Slock.it want to disrupt the world through their IoT-system – an ethereum-based locking system opened with money.

The owner of a Slock sets a deposit amount and a price for using the item. Users can find the Slock using the app and then make a payment on the Ethereum blockchain, gaining permission to open or close the Slock with their phone.

As the last of the ten startups pitching the judges for the 4YFN IoT award, the german startup managed to convince them in the last minutes of the competition.

Cutting out the middlemen with powerful partners

The locking system will be used for user access control, and are already in use in electric car-charging stations, where customers open the charger with their payment of the service, and only pay for what they actually consume.

Slock.it has strategic partnerships with companies such as Samsung, IPFS, RWE and others.

It’s a B2B product, which is supposed to be free to users.

Their product is planned to come for sale by mid 2016.

3D printed food and secure homes with AI

Even though there was no price for second place, the judges clearly said that the hard choice was choosing between Slock.it and Natural Machines Foodini.

Foodini is a 3D food printer, making it possible to print all kinds of shapes and types of food, with your own desired ingredients. It’s first thought of as a B2B product, starting at around $2.000.

3.14 makes a toy called Kamibot, which teaches kids and teenagers to code in new way. Through their software, the kids learn to give the Kamibot controls through code, and gradually teaches the kids to code different languages.

Antilope is a startup making a sportswear series based on embedded EMS (electro muscle stimulation) technology. The startups suits will not only track the movements of your training and be comfortable during training, but also keep your muscles activated through the EMS. The suits vary in price from $250-325.

Braingaze uses mind tacking technology through eye movement to diagnose ADHD in children. They already use their technology in multiple hospitals in Europe, and plan to diagnose asbergers syndrome in the future. They also want to make their service available as a mobile app, but this is also in the future, according to the founders.

Citycrop is an indoor automated garden-device that lets you grow (according to the founders) plants, fruits and vegetables three times faster than you would normally grow them, and you can connect your phone to the garden and track the growth. The garden device creates the right micro climate for your particular plant, and let you grow whatever plant you want in your kitchen. The price is estimated at around $600.

Comfylight was apart from Slock.it and Foodini, one the truly impressive startups. ComfyLight is the first light bulb that is able to learn how you move around at home and then to simulate your movements perfectly when you’re out, through an inbuilt AI. In this way Comfylight detects potential burglars and gives you a signal through your app whenever unwanted movements are detected. The bulbs AI can even detect your pets movements, and distinguish these from an unwanted guest.

Cleanbeen is a fully integrated system using a combination of hardware, wearable devices and related backoffice platform to monitor, evaluate and manage handhygiene of staff, patients and visitors in hospitals. They are currently testing their product at a hospital outside of Lisbon.