A YORK developer of mobile apps is being supported by Windows to launch its cloud-based publishing software to new audiences.

LCI Media, based in Monkgate, York, has qualified for the second round of the Windows Startup Challenge, which challenges businesses to design and create a store app as part of Windows Start-up Weekend initiative.

The winning team will be flown to mobile technology exhibition DEMO Mobile in San Francisco on April 17 to launch their app to the press and potential investors, while runners-up will receive marketing and design and technical support.

Masoud Ghorbani, marketing manager of LCI Media, said: “It’s a game changer for us if we get to that point.

“We can do the showcase in San Francisco with all the big companies and the big venture capitalists. And it will be recognition of what a small company from York can do.

“It’s such a great achievement for us.

“We’re really proud that we made it so far.”

LCI Media, which has created a publishing tool for publishers, marketers and bloggers to create their own branded apps on tablet devices, already provides the software to clients around the world, including a number of Dutch magazine publishers and multimedia companies and a San Francisco bakery, called Peasant Pies.

It has made it into the top 20 teams which have gone through to the second round of the competition and has received support from a Windows engineer, who has been assigned as a mentor, to help them launch the app in Windows 8 by the next stage of the competition on March 1.