Global startup competition to march on to regional rounds

December 16, 2017 | 15:44

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VietChallenge 2018, a world-scale startup competition for Vietnamese entrepreneurs, announced the date of the regional rounds. Accordingly, the Hanoi round will be on December 19 and the Ho Chi Minh City round on December 22.

Ten semi-finalist teams will present their pitches and compete to be in the top three for the national round in 2018.

To date, members of the judging committee in the Hanoi regional round are Bui Hai An, manager, director and co-founder of Silicon Straits, MSV Tech, Cognito CRM and TGM Tech, and Dung Phan, founder of Big Cat Entertainment.

Additionally, the judging panel for the Ho Chi Minh City regional round will consist of Bui Cam Van, CEO of Up Co-working Space; Le Quoc Vinh, chairman and CEO of LeGroup; Nguyen Dinh Thanh, managing director and co-founder of Elite PR School; Tran Phuong Hoa, CEO of Summit Education Services; and Denny Cowger, chief administrative officer and general counsellor of Ortholite.

In April 2018, the last round of the competition will take place in the venue of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston.

Following the 2017 entrepreneurial competition, VietChallenge will shake hands with Association of Vietnamese Students and Professionals in the US, targeting to elevate the startup competition to the next level.

Thanks to the competition, winners and finalists have successfully connected with suitable investors engrossed in their business concepts as well as earning financial initiatives of up to $32,000 as a hands-in-glove action-based scholarship platform.

Jean Pham (left),chief operating officer of VietChallenge said the next Alibaba could be among the candidates

In the mission of bridging the gap among Vietnamese startups around the world, the annual competition has drawn over 250 applications from startups based in 23 nations over the last two years as well as the attention of countless eminent US-based investment firms.

VietChallenge is one of the first startup competitions specifically designed for Vietnamese talents wherever they may be, providing a fair competition on the global scale, valuable opportunities for young startups to connect with interested investors, and highly-valued mentorship, as well as profound insights from experienced mentors.