Charlotte's Yap Selected as a TechCrunch40 Finalist
Posted: 09-20-2007 : SAN FRANCISCO, CA & CHARLOTTE, N.C.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA & CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Yap, a Charlotte based high technology firm, is proud to announce that it was selected as a finalist at Silicon Valley's hottest event of the year, TechCrunch40 ( http://www.techcrunch40.com). The company eclipsed over 750 other start up companies from over 26 countries and presented their business plans with a technology demonstration to Silicon Valley's elite. A large number of domestic and international media outlets, as well as a who's who list of web entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and major Internet companies, such as AOL, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, MySpace, and Yahoo!, were in attendance. Yap has developed a patent pending system for mobile phones that unifies text messaging and web services. It will allow users to quickly send text messages or perform web searches by simply speaking and then having it instantaneously convert their phrase into text. This is especially timely as several reports confirm that over 66% of teenagers send text messages while driving, a statistic that had California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger outlaw teen cellphone use last week. The company has already speech-enabled a multitude of web services, such as Amazon, AOL, Digg, eBay, Facebook, Fandango, Google, Newsvine, Orbitz, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, and YouTube, and will be adding additional ones as demand requires. The application will be a freely available download using a mobile ad supported model and has launched a private beta at several trial sites in 3Q. It is expected to open more generally to the public in 4Q.

The company was co-founded and is led by brothers Igor and Victor Jablokov. Igor acts as CEO and is a mobile speech technologies veteran, while Victor acts as COO and has extensive engineering operations experience. They have assembled star R&D talent having previously worked on Apple's iPod music player, Honda's voice controlled navigational systems, and IBM's ViaVoice desktop dictation product. It is well represented by Raleigh's Hutchison Law Group, Atlanta's Morris Manning & Martin, and Charlotte's Tillman Wright. With guidance from boards that include carrier, banking, and web executives, Yap is actively seeking an institutional round of financing or creative partnerships for distribution.

About Yap
Yap is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina for its friendly tax incentives for angel investors, proximity to wireless carriers, and ease of access to the European market. It was founded in the spring of 2006 and is funded by private investors. The company has invented a state of the art platform that unifies speech recognition, mobile search, media, and advertising to support the businesses of device makers, web services, wireless carriers, and for the benefit of end users of all ages and backgrounds.

Website: http://www.yapme.com
Media Contact: Catherine Durstewitz, 704-372-1470, media@yapinc.com