2023 HKUST One Million Dollar International Entrepreneurship Competition Guangzhou - 2023 HKUST One Million Dollar International Entrepreneurship Competition Guangzhou
HKUST launched One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition to provide support for young entrepreneurs since 2011, from which a number of groundbreaking hi-tech enterprises such as DJI and Yunzhou have been discovered and cultivated, achieving significant successes in both technology innovation and commercialization. Since 2016, the competition has extended from HKUST campus to different regions, including Beijing, Foshan, Guangzhou, Macau, Shenzhen, etc.
As the most important knowledge transfer platform for HKUST in the Mainland China, Guangzhou HKUST For Ying Tung Research Institute had been successfully organized its Guangzhou Regional Competition for 8 consecutive years. Each year competition winners receive cash prizes as seed money to build their own companies in Guangzhou, and a series of training courses, forums, roadshows and networking events are organized to create communication platform for participants, industrial professionals and investors. Besides, through the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao (International) Youth Entrepreneurship Hub, the research institute provides incubation support to top-performing participants.
The 2023 HKUST One Million Dollar International Entrepreneurship Competition Guangzhou Regional Competition events are jointly organized by Guangzhou HKUST For Ying Tung Research Institute and Guangzhou Science and Technology Progress Foundation, under the guidance of Bureau of Science and Technology of Guangzhou Municipality, and Bureau of Science and Technology of Nansha District, Guangzhou.
The competition aims to provide an integrative learning experience to youth who have business aspirations and engaged in science and technology research. The competition encourages youth to start their entrepreneurial journey and explore the broad development prospects from the Greater Bay Area.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
- Participating team must submit their project information and business plan through www.gzonemilliondollar.cn by 23:00pm August 8, 2023.
- Each participating team must include at least 2 members, and all team members information must be submitted for online registration. Once the registration is completed, team members and project name cannot be changed;
- This year, the competition accepts each participant to join one project team, and each project team must choose to register via one of the three tracks. Duplicate members in the participating teams/tracks will make the registration invalid;
- Teams that won top 3 prizes from previous HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship International Competition in any region are not eligible for repeat participation.
- All prize money shall be awarded in RMB yuan and prizes will only be awarded to companies registered in Guangzhou after January 1, 2020 (Exception will be made for winner who is a university student);
- Each participating team must adhere to business norms, possess a good social reputation, have no adverse records, and have clear intellectual property rights;
- The committee reserves the right to verify the authenticity of the information submitted by participants at all stages of the competition. If any discrepancies or inaccuracies are found, the committee has the authority to disqualify the team from participating in the competition or revoke any previously awarded prizes.
EVENT TIMELINE
Registration
May 26 Establishment of Guangzhou Regional Competition Committee
Jun 30 Online Registration Platform Open for Submission
Aug 08 Online Registration deadline
Preliminary Round Competition
Aug 25 Announcement of Guangzhou Regional Competition top 24 teams
Aug 26 Preliminary Round score feedback to participating teams
Semifinal and Final Competition
Sep 05 Semifinal Briefing for Guangzhou Regional Competition top 24 teams
Sep 15
AM: Guangzhou Regional Competition Semifinals( top 24)
PM: Guangzhou Regional Competition Final( top 9) and Award Ceremony
Sep 25 Due diligence investigation conducted by Competition Committee
EVENT TRACK SETTING
The 2023 HKUST One Million Dollar International Entrepreneurship Competition Guangzhou Regional Competition features three tracks as below, welcoming start-up project teams and companies to participate -
GBA Startup Track
Participant from any country or region that possess leading technologies or innovative business models in various industries are welcome to join by submitting GBA Startup Track registration form. We expect this track’s participants to share unique insights into their innovation fields, and demonstrate their business development plans for the GBA market.
International Startup Track
International start-ups are welcome to join the competition by submitting International Startup Track registration form. For this track, all information and documents shall be submitted in English language. We anticipate participants to showcase the competitiveness of inventions in global market and their business development plans for the GBA.
In addition to Award from Final Competition, RMB 40,000/team Cash Award will be given to 3 top-performing teams from this track (score ranking from high to low) for supporting their business entity registration in Nansha District, Guangzhou.
University Student Track
This track is designed for participating teams and companies who’s members are all university students. This track’s top-performing teams will have opportunities to join Guangdong Hong Kong Macao (International) Youth Entrepreneurship Hub Startup@Nansha incubation programme and enjoy free usage of co-working space for 2 years.
PROJECT EVALUATION PROCESS
2023 HKUST One Million Dollar International Entrepreneurship Competition Guangzhou Regional Competition will consist of 3 rounds of evaluation: Preliminary Round, Semifinal, and Final. Each round will be assessed by a panel of judges comprising university professors, professionals from various industries and investors.
Judges at each round will score projects from five dimensions: Technology and Product (25%), Commercialization Feasibility (25%), Industry and Market Prospects (20%), Team Member Qualifications (15%), and Financial Analysis (15%).
Preliminary Round
There will be no on-site presentation or Q&A during the preliminary round. The judging panel will review project information and business plans participants submitted via online registration platform. Each project will be evaluated by four experts. Each track will have its individual panel of judges. 8 projects from each track will be selected to the Semifinal and form the competition’s top 24.
For the GBA Startup Track, the evaluation panel will consist of experts from universities, enterprises, incubation platforms and investment firms. The scoring weightage will be 30% for universities, 30% for enterprises, 30% for incubation platforms and investment firms, and 10% for competition committee appointed specialist. The 8 projects with the highest scores will be shortlisted.
For the International Startup Track, it implements mutual recognition with 广州科技创新创业大赛港澳台赛. In this track, shortlisted projects will be selected based on "6+2" structure. 6 projects with the highest scores, plus 2 projects who also achieved the top 2 performance in previous year’s广州科技创新创业大赛港澳台赛 will collectively form the 8 shortlisted projects. Evaluation panel composition and scoring weightage will be the same as the GBA Startup Track.
For the University Student Track, all projects will be evaluated by university professors.
Semifinal
The 8 shortlisted projects from each track will be required to arrange representative members to Guangzhou HKUST For Ying Tung Research Institute in Nansha to give 8-minute project presentation and complete 7-minute Q&A session on the morning 15 September.
Each track will have its individual panel of three judges, who will evaluate the project based on their online submitted information and on-site performance. The scores of the Semifinal will be announced right after the 24 participating teams completed their presentation and Q&A sessions.
Top 3 project teams from each track will form the 9 shortlisted projects for Final. Participating members for International Startup Track will be required to present their projects and and answer questions in English language.
Final
The judging panel will just evaluate the 9 shortlisted project teams’ business plan presentation and on-site Q&A performance, and the rankings of 2023 HKUST One Million Dollar International Entrepreneurship Competition Guangzhou Regional Competition will be based on the scores the 9 project teams obtained in this final.
The Final top 3 winners will also qualify for the 2023 HKUST One Million Dollar International Entrepreneurship Competition National Final.
AWARDS
Winners of 2023 HKUST One Million Dollar International Entrepreneurship Competition Guangzhou Regional Competition will be awarded with cash prizes and in-kind services. Also, teams with outstanding performance at all stages of the competition will have the opportunity to join the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao (International) Youth Entrepreneurship Hub (NSYEH) and gain various forms of entrepreneurial support and media exposure.
Cash Awards
The First Prize *1 RMB 250,000/team
The Second Prize*2 RMB 150,000/team
The Third Prize*3 RMB 80,000/team
Excellence Prize*3 RMB 10,000/team
Special Award for International Startup Track *3 RMB 40,000/team
Special Accreditation Award Total RMB 60,000 (contested by top 24)
Cash Award Redemption
- Taxation on prize money shall be borne by winners
- The cash prizes will only be awarded to companies registered in Guangzhou after January 1, 2020 (except for projects led by university students), and at least one member of winning project must hold no less than 20% of the company's shares.
- The Guangzhou HKUST For Ying Tung Research Institute retains the final interpretation right of the cash prizes and award setup in the Guangzhou Regional Competition.
Email:ivy.ye@ust.hk
Tel (WeChat): +86 186 6480 7417