Meet the 8 infrastructure startups for the MobileBeat 2011 competition

It’s that time of the year again: VentureBeat’s MobileBeat 2011 conference is coming up on July 12 – 13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. This year our theme is “Who wins in the 4G nirvana?” We’ll be focusing on the rise of 4G and what it means for every aspect of the mobile industry.

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This year we’re looking to showcase the top 16 companies with the coolest mobile ideas. Today we’re announcing the 8 infrastructure/services finalists, and we’re close to locking in our remaining 8 application startups.

At the MobileBeat event on July 12-13, the finalists will demonstrate their product for five minutes on stage. Then an expert panel and the audience will choose the winners of the competition. Winners will receive our coveted Tesla award (named in honor of Nikola Tesla, the scientist who discovered early mobile communication) along with other prizes yet to be announced.

Here’s our list of infrastructure/services mobile startups:
Roar Engine — maker of a platform that lets anyone easily build social games
LiveDibs — maker of a marketplace that will let both consumers and businesses take advantage of deals
playSocial — developed a distribution API that connects browser-based mobile social games with social networks, web portals and more
Global Locating Systems — maker of a small luggage tag that allows consumers and airlines to track their luggage assets in real-time
card.io — maker of an SDK that lets mobile app developers easily implement mobile credit card payments
Kopo Kopo — makes it possible for any small businesses in emerging economies to accept mobile payments
App55 . — creator of a platform that lets any online merchant offer their customers mobile shopping as simple as using Amazon
MobileSense —  creator of tools that allow mobile users to bookmark content of any media type

We’ll also have a contest for GamesBeat 2011, you can view the 8 finalists for the “Who’s Got Game” contest here. For sponsorships, send a message to sponsors@venturebeat.com.

We’ll be exploring the most disruptive mobile trends at our fourth annual MobileBeat 2011 conference, on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It will focus on the rise of 4G and how it delivers the promise of true mobile computing. We’re also accepting entries for our mobile startup competition at the show. MobileBeat is co-located with our GamesBeat 2011 conference this year. To register, click on this link. Sponsors include Verizon Wireless, Qualcomm, Flurry, Greystripe, Box, Moolah Media, Tapjoy, AT&T Interactive, YuMe, Zong, Kontagent, Papaya Mobile, Acaltel-Lucent, Spil Games, BluePoint Security, PayPal, Xyologic, VSC, and Vantage Communications.