1. Introduction of City Suzhou
Suzhou is located in the southeastern part of Jiangsu Province, and is one of the most important cities in Yangtze River area. Suzhou is famous with its long history and culture in China. It has a history of more than 2,500 years starting from the Spring and Autumn Period. The city still maintains the scene of water combining with land and canals adjacent to street. However, Suzhou is not only famous with its unique city style but also with rich production of fish, rice, and silk. All of these entitled it the reputation for “paradise.” More importantly, Suzhou is one of the most competitive cities in China. In 2018, the regional GDP exceeded 1.85 trillion RMB, which ranked seventh among all the cities in China.
2. Introduction of the event
The “Win the Future” Venture Contest for International Entrepreneurs is organized by the Suzhou International Elite Venture Week Alliance. It aims to create a high-level innovation and entrepreneurship platform for overseas high-level talents. The Competition of European Division has been successfully held seven times in various European cities e.g. Frankfurt, Munich and Paris. It has attracted a large number of overseas high-level talents and excellent projects to visit Suzhou for further cooperation. Among these, more than 80 projects have successfully started in Suzhou.
Starting from 2009, in order to help more overseas high-level talents to start their business in Suzhou. Suzhou as a pioneer, created the platform - Suzhou International Elite Venture Week, to serve overseas high-level talents. Based on the theme of gathering global wisdom and creating a paradise for startups, the event has obtained great reputation world widely and gathered thousands of talents globally. It assists these talents to achieve their dream of innovation and entrepreneurship.
3. The participants
The event, which consists of both “Win the Future” Venture Contest for International Entrepreneurs and Suzhou International Elite Venture Week, welcomes companies and talents to participate! The projects could be from various fields, such as new materials, new energy, biotechnology and medicine, smart city, block chain technology, equipment manufacturing, integrated circuits and software, energy conservation and environmental protection etc.
4. Policies
1) After two rounds of selections, excellent projects are selected for the finals of “Win the Future” Venture Contest for International Entrepreneurs (European section). The selected projects will enjoy media exposure, and be recommended to the cooperative venture capitals and the cooperative banks to have the priority for financial support.
2) Competition awards
One First prize, 50,000 RMB/project (before tax)
Two Second prizes, 30,000 RMB/project (before tax)
Three Third prizes, 10,000 RMB / project (before tax)
The total rewarding is 140,000 RMB. Winners in “Win the Future” Venture Contest for International Entrepreneurs (European division) will be the candidates for the finals held in Suzhou in July 2019.
3) The first-prize winner of this competition enjoys the following policies on the premise of meeting the conditions of the Gusu Leading Talents Program and the Angel Program. They can appropriately break the limit of age, education and other restrictions. Also they can directly apply for Gusu Leading Talents Program and the Angel Project, which provide 50,000-100,000 RMB entrepreneurship grants and 200,000-500,000 RMB project funding. This green channel is retained for 1-2 years with the winning projects.
4) The first-prize winner of the finals (held in Suzhou in July 2019), who starts the business within 1 year and meets certain requirements, can be directly entitled Gusu Leading Talents and have the relevant policy and financial support. The second-prize winner, who starts a business in Suzhou within one year, can directly attend Gusu Leading Talents Program Interview.
5) The third-prize winner of the competition in European division can be directly entitled Taicang Leading Talents, after the registration in Taicang and meeting the basic application conditions. When applying for project funding, the technical review will be skipped and the applicants can directly attend the defense and field investigation. According to the evaluation, the project can receive subsidies from 500,000 to 3,000,000 RMB and the applicant can have the corresponding living allowances.
5. Schedule of the competition
- Registration stage
Applicants should submit ① the completed registration form (see attached file), ② business plan (see attached file), ③ scan of the passport first page, ④ and a copy of the highest academic certificate to the committee. The official email address: info@caln.nl
Review of the project proposals will be organized monthly from the beginning of April 2019. First come, first served!
The committee will organize relevant international scholars, financing institutions, and representatives of venture capitals to conduct preliminary evaluation. The outstanding projects will be recommended to the final contest which will be held in Amsterdam on 1st of June.
- Final stage
On 1st June 2019, the selected 8 winners will perform the final 10 minutes pitch and will be ranked immediately by the jury. The applicants must perform the pitch in person. The jury will rank the first, second and third prizes according to the feasibility of the project and the performance of the pitch. In the end, an award ceremony will be held.
The jury of the second round evaluation is composed of experts from various fields, and representatives from different institutions. The second round evaluation will be mainly focused on the application perspectives of the project.
Time for the European division finals: 12:30 on Saturday, 1st June, 2019.
It starts officially at 13:00.
Location: Emerald Hall in Amsterdam Convention Center, Europaplein 24, 1078 GZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
It is near the Amsterdam Rai train station with hundreds of parking spaces.
The schedule is as follows:
12:30-13:00 Guests registration, free talk, introduce Suzhou film: Charming Suzhou - Entrepreneurial paradise
13:00-13:05 The host introduce the guests and review the contest.
13:05-13:15 Guest Speech
13:15-13:30 Speech by Suzhou Delegation: New Suzhou, New Paradise for Entrepreneurship
13:30-14:30 First half of the final (4 pitches)
14:30-14:50 Break
14:50-15:50 Second half of the final (4 pitches)
15:50-16:00 Suzhou delegation introduces entrepreneurial environment in Suzhou
16:00-16:10 Introduction Suzhou International Elite Venture Week
16:10-16:20 General remarks
16:20-16:30 Award ceremony and the speech from the winners
- Visit Suzhou (July)
The committee will organize the winning projects (teams), outstanding projects (teams) and top notch talents to participate in Suzhou International Elite Venture Week on 10th to 12th July 2019 in Suzhou, China. During the Venture Week, the committee will organize field visits and communication with local enterprises and institutions in Suzhou. Winners of the competition (European Division) will participate in the pre-selection of the global finals.
Jury committee
It is composed of Chinese and foreign technical experts and representatives of venture capitals.
Deadline for application:
15th Apr 2019
6. Downloads
Business Plan Template (You could submit the BP written in your own format)