YOUR WEEKLY FIX OF ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS 20-26 March 2014

Top 10 business ideas & opportunities for 2014 Weve selected 15 new business ideas that will provide entrepreneurs with plenty of inspiration. Spotted from countries all around the world, these ideas offer a taste of whats to come. YOUR WEEKLY FIX OF ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS 20-26 March 2014

This is part of a series of articles that looks at entrepreneurs hoping to get their ideas off the ground through crowdfunding. At the time of writing, each of these innovations is currently seeking funding. Cycling in the city can be a dangerous business, regardless of the experience levels of the rider. We recently wrote about Fly6, which has turned rear bike lights into cameras to deter motorists from making bad judgments, and now Lumen is the worlds first commercially available retro-reflective bicycle, offering greater safety at night through a coating that lights up in car headlights. Read more about Lumen 1. Reflective bike uses cats eyes technology to save lives

Almost everything we do or say on our mobile and tablet devices is recorded and archived, comprising a huge database of moments in our lives. While futuristic services such as Eterni.me intend to use them to help recreate loved ones after theyve died, Tx.to is a startup that lets anyone print their favorite text message conversations onto decorative scrolls as a memento. Read more about Tx.to 2. Service prints SMS histories onto miniature scrolls

The art market is a notoriously messy and unpredictable one, but nevertheless a cash cow for gallery owners and dealers. In the past we have seen platforms such as Artsy make the discovery and purchase of famous and lesser-known works a little bit easier, and now a new service called ArtRank aims to quantify the value of artists in the emerging fields of net.art and street art. Read more about ArtRank 3. Site uses algorithms to tell collectors when to buy and sell emerging art

Investing money in the right places isnt easy if you dont have the know-how, and especially if you dont have the money in the first place. However, even a small amount of cash can be placed into shares, and Acorns is a new app that rounds up users purchases to the nearest dollar and automatically invests the difference in a stock of their choice. Read more about Acorns 4. App turns small change into an investment portfolio

Energy prices are rising thanks to the scarcity of non-renewable resources, and this is prompting consumers to look more favorably on alternative solutions not currently offered by major utilities firms, such as Germany-based AOTERRAs solution which places energy-intensive cloud servers into customers homes and harnesses the excess heat to warm the properties. Another company now hoping to win over dissatisfied consumers is the Netherlands Vandebron, which lets them pick the type of green energy theyd like to buy, as well as where it comes from. Read more about Vandebron 5. Energy marketplace lets customers choose their green power source

Consumers are already using their tablets and mobile devices in the kitchen in place of their battered old cook books, so its not too much of a leap to imagine appliances that can sync with them to make cooking a bit easier. In the past, weve seen the Prep Pad measure the nutritional content of the items being chopped on it, and now Drop is another smart kitchen scale that can adjust recipes on the fly if users put too much of one ingredient in. Read more about Drop 6. iPad-integrated kitchen scale could turn an amateur into a pro chef

Weird Of The Week: This is part of a series of articles that looks at some of the most bizarre and niche business ideas we see here at Springwise. Baggage can be a contentious issue at airports, with passengers often facing extra fees if they go over the limit for any checked-in luggage. Last year, Samoa Air even became the first airline to introduce a pay-by-weight system for its customers. Offering a cheeky solution for consumers hoping to avoid these fees, Bulgarias Jaktogo is a lightweight jacket that can help passengers smuggle 10kg of extra luggage into airplanes. Read more about Jaktogo 7. Jacket helps airline passengers dodge luggage fees

This is part of a series of articles that looks at entrepreneurs hoping to get their ideas off the ground through crowdfunding. At the time of writing, each of these innovations is currently seeking funding. Parents often express concern over the effect technology is having on their children. As the thinking goes, kids these days have replaced playing in the park with Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, and their imaginations are being eroded by tech that does all the thinking for them. Springwise recently wrote about Loop a gaming system that aims to tackle the first issue with gameplay that takes place outdoors and now Japanese innovators have developed Moff, a smart bracelet that lets kids use any object as a toy in a number of imagination-based smartphone games. Read more about Moff 8. Smartband for kids turns any object into a toy

One way to motivate humans to do anything is to provide rewards when they achieve and punishment when they fail, which has been the basis of apps such as GymPact, the platform that uses money as a tool for stimulus for keeping fit. Reworking the model for students, StudyPact gives students financial prizes for completing a set amount of work each week, with penalties for missed deadlines. Read more about Studypact 9. Service charges users when they dont do their study, pays them when they do

Locating items that are somewhere in one of masses of boxes can often be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Smart technologies are now making this process easier, and self-storage startup Boxbee is already enabling customers to digitally inventorize their stored belongings. Now Japanese stationery company King Jim is letting homeowners do the same thing at home with its NeutralBOX, which comes with an app that lets users keep a visual inventory or scan boxes to easily see whats in them. Read more about NeutralBOX 10. Smart cardboard boxes turn homes into a self-storage unit

Handing over money to charity is enough for some to feel good about themselves, but nonprofits and social good organizations often find it difficult to elicit donations without offering something in return. Weve already seen gaming site GoodGames let users raise money simply by playing ad-supported titles, and now the UKs Guilty Pledgers is hoping to do something similar for music charging partygoers for adding an embarrassing track to a Spotify playlist, and then sending the cash to charity. Read more about Guilty Pledgers 11. App forces users to give to charity for playing cheesy tracks on Spotify

When youre ill, the last thing you want to worry about is whether youre taking the right pills at the right time, or if youre about the run out. We recently saw Walgreens and TaskRabbit take the pain out of getting medicine for cold and flu sufferers by delivering it to their door within a couple of hours. Now online pharmacy PillPack is mailing any prescription direct to patients, conveniently organized, dated and refilled when necessary. Read more about Athos 12. Online pharmacy makes pill regimens less confusing

Being able to travel in a private jet is the pipe dream of many, but the reality is that its a luxury preserved for the moneyed few. In the past weve seen platforms such as JetSuite enable fractional ownership of jets, but startup Flytenow is making private air travel more affordable with ride sharing for small planes. Read more about Flytenow 13. Uber for fliers lets anyone catch a ride in a small plane

The problem with most transport apps is that they rely on fixed data from transport company schedules and dont truly reflect exactly whats going on with the citys trains and buses at any given moment. Operating like a Waze for public transport, Israels Ototo app crowdsources real-time information from passengers to give users the best suggestions for their commute. Read more about Ototo 14. Crowdsourced transit app shows what time the bus will really come

Consumers in the West typically take for granted the purchases they make every day that are out of the reach of others in poverty. The buy one, give one model aims to tackle this problem by matching small purchases and donating them to those in need, such as bus tickets through Detroits WeRide program, or a pair of shoes through the popular TOMS brand. Operating on a much grander scale, Canadas World Housing is now using the model to help build shelter for families in the poorest parts of the world. Read more about World Housing 15. Buy a house, give one to a family in need

What is Springwise? Springwise scans the globe for the most promising, unique and innovative business ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation. Springwise headquarters is in close contact with more than 17,000 Springspotters in over 150 countries worldwide, who provide us with details of the latest innovations in their countries. These are compiled and assessed by our editorial team, and the best examples are published to provide entrepreneurial inspiration to our readers around the world! Springwise publishes a Daily and a Weekly newsletter, to which you can subscribe for free, they are sent to more than 170,000 people. Established in 2002, Springwise is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. 2002-2014 SPRINGWISE FOLLOW SPRINGWISE