Target reveals winner of 'Co.Labs & Retail Accelerator'

The Co.Labs & Target Retail Accelerator from Fast Company and Target was a unique partnership designed to foster digital innovation in retail by challenging developers to build a new mobile experience for Target. Work is already underway to bring the Divvy concept to life for Target guests.

“The Retail Accelerator set out to find fresh and innovative ideas for a new mobile experience for Target, and the developer community absolutely exceeded our expectations,” said Casey Carl, Target's President of Multichannel and Senior Vice President of Enterprise Strategy.

“Selecting a winner wasn’t easy. But Team Pilot’s ability to make group shopping more convenient and seamless for guests made the project stand out above the others.”

A group of New York-based digital developers and co-workers who dubbed themselves Team Pilot submitted the winning application, Divvy, which is designed to improve the group shopping experience by allowing multiple users to update a shopping list in real time while making it easier to split the bill and distribute receipts.

“The quality of the entries was extremely competitive--many of these were fully spec'd, fully designed apps with proven technical teams behind them,” said Co.Labs Editor, Chris Dannen. “Still, Divvy blew away the judges with clarity of concept and a highly polished look and feel.”

The Retail Accelerator drew more than 350 registrants and 76 completed entries between March and April 2013. Seven finalists were selected in May by a panel of industry experts including Target’s Mr. Carl; Matt Mankins, CTO of FastCompany.com; Tom Preston-Werner, CEO of Github; and Ruchi Sanghvi, VP of operations for Dropbox and Suhail Doshi, CEO of Mixpanel.

The seven finalist teams received $10,000 to build their concepts into functioning prototypes and then in June presented to a panel of Target executives including Mr. Carl; Jeff Jones, Target EVP and CMO; Laysha Ward, President of Target Community Relations; and Jason Goldberger, SVP of Target.com and Mobile.

About Fast Company

Fast Company is the world's leading progressive business media brand, with a unique editorial focus on innovation in technology, ethonomics, leadership, and design. Written for, by, and about the most progressive business leaders, Fast Company and FastCompany.com inspire readers and users to think beyond traditional boundaries, lead conversations, and create the future of business.

About Target

Minneapolis-based Target Corporation serves guests at 1,832 stores – 1,784 in the United States and 48 in Canada – and at Target.com. Since 1946, Target has given 5 percent of its profit through community grants and programs; today, that giving equals more than $4 million a week.

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