Australia Division, the 3rd China (Shenzhen) Innovation & Entrepreneurship International Competition was officially launched on 1st December 2018. The competition will attract numerous high-quality projects, as well as integrate innovation and entrepreneurship resources to help Australian innovation and entrepreneurship projects connect with Chinese hi-tech industrial resources, thus expanding the Chinese market for mutual benefits and win-win results.

Sydney Competition, Australia Division is one of ten overseas division competitions. It is hosted by Shenzhen China , executed by Australia-China Youth Business Council under the supervision of  Shenzhen Economic and Trade Representative Office in Australia and supported by Austrade. Top research institutions, the most authoritative adjudicators, the most experienced mentors and high-quality VC will discover the most innovative talents.

▲ Winners in 2018

In 2018，the Competition attracted 1460 technology based start-ups from 31 countries participating in 5 industry categories and 135 of them won the respective country divisions and came to Shenzhen to compete for the final contests, including 11 from Australia who were selected from 169 participants from the Australia division of the Competition.

Promotion conferences will be held in some main cities of Australia, such as Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane. 20 shortlisted finalists will be asked to pitch their ideas to a panel of adjudicators with prizes to be awarded to the top 10 projects of the Australian division. Finally, the top 10 projects will be chosen to attend the Finals in Shenzhen. The final competition of Australia Division will be held in Sydney in 23rd March 2019.

Registration for the competition is open from December 1st, 2018 to February 28th, 2019. In March 2019, the preliminary round for Australia Division and the Professional Competition is scheduled to start. In April 2019, more than 100 outstanding projects selected from the Overseas Division Competitions and Professional Competition will meet in Shenzhen and compete in multiple rounds including Professional Finals, Industrial Finals and Finals for the highest honours and awards of the competition. The competition offers a total prize of RMB11.2 million, including RMB2.9 million for Overseas Division Finals, RMB1.5 million for Professional Finals, RMB2.5 million for Industrial Finals and RMB4.3 million for Finals. One contestant may stand the chance to win a total prize of RMB1.4 million. In addition to the generous prizes, the competition also provides high-quality entrepreneurship projects with support such as industrial incentives, financial technology and project incubation. 

Highlights of this year’s competition include:

(1) Innovation and opening up to connect the global highlands of innovation. This year’s international competition will continue to connect global cities and regions to achieve an expanded scale. A new session of the Overseas Division Competitions has been added to the previous nine sessions and will be held in Madrid (Spain). Therefore, there will be a total of ten sessions of the Overseas Division Competitions, which will be held in Sydney (Australia), Toronto (Canada), Berlin (Germany), Tel Aviv (Israel), Tokyo (Japan), Stockholm (Sweden), Madrid (Spain), Boston (U.S.A.), Silicon Valley (U.S.A.) and London (U.K.).

(2) Optimized profession that is tailored towards the industrial development in Shenzhen. To vigorously implement the innovation-driven development strategy and establish an industrial structure and new competition advantages, the competition has added the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Financial Technology to the previous five Industrial Competitions of Internet, Advanced Manufacturing, Electronic Science and Technology, Biology and Life Science and Technology, as well as Materials & Energy (including energy conservation and environmental protection). Contestants may register projects under both Professional Competitions and Industrial Competitions, provided that they meet the required conditions.

(3) Gathering of venture capital investment and integration of resources for a win-win future. Up to 40 venture capital organizations are going to participate in the international competition. A number of renowned investment organizations represented by Shenzhen Capital Group, Shenzhen Green Pine Capital, Oriental Fortune Capital, Cowincapital and Green Orange Capital will connect directly during the competition and form a venture capital fund pool of RMB25 billion to carry out portfolio investment on outstanding competition projects. During the division competitions, investment organizations and investors from Shenzhen will serve as judges and supervisors and engage in project connections in different countries and divisions. All participating projects will be provided with social capital investment opportunities through the investment connection service platform of the competition. Meanwhile, two banks will be selected to offer various forms of financial service solutions such as “investment and financing loans” and “talent loans” so as to offer more options to the settling companies in terms of financing and facilitate the development of contestants.

Shenzhen has impressed overseas entrepreneurs with its outstanding innovation and entrepreneurship environment through the international competition. As a result, Shenzhen’s image as a city of innovation and its reputation overseas have been further enhanced. As a platform that motivates the innovation potential and vitality of the entire society, the competition propels innovation-driven development and drives new opportunities for scientific and technological innovation in Shenzhen.

The competition shall commence on December 1st, 2018 and participants are required to register before February 28th, 2019. Please visit the official website http://www.itcsz.cn/ or http://competition.seto.org.au to register.