Why participate?
The Competition is open to all high-caliber overseas talents and projects regardless of nationality. The Competition will offer generous awards totaling RMB 9,120,000 Yuan（ $1,740,000 CND）to the winners. Single competitors can be awarded up to RMB 1,250,000 Yuan（ $240,000 CND） (government subsidies and venture capital investment not included). 60 venture capital institutions will build a venture capital
pool amounting to RMB 700 million Yuan ($134 million CND) for portfolio investment in winning projects. All entries can be linked with the service platform via corresponding competition investment and gain outside investment opportunities. Meanwhile, they will also be invited to attend The Conference on International Exchange of Professionals held in China.
Targeting Sectors
Congratulations to the cash-prize winners:
First Prize(20,000CAD )：
Tappock
Second Prize(10,000CAD )：
Magicyte
Second Prize(10,000CAD )：
FlexCap
Third Prize(6,000CAD )：
SEEM Technology
Third Prize(6,000CAD )：
Bio-based Nano-material
Third Prize(6,000CAD )：
CMOS-MEMS Array Infrared Identification Sensor
Congratulations to the China qualifiers:
Judges
Dr. Songnian Zhou, Chair of IEAC
Dr. Songnian Zhou is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. 1992－2012, Songnian co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Platform Computing Corp., the industry leader in cluster, grid and cloud computing. In 2002, Songnian received the Ernest&Young award for the Best Technology Entrepreneur of the Year.
Mr. Don Wrigh
President, The Winnington Capital Group, Chairman, Cinaport Capital Inc. Over 39 years in investment industry, Actively supports several charitable organizations, Director of MaRS Innovation Inc.
Ms. Michele Romanow
An engineer and a serial entrepreneur who started three companies before her 28th birthday,
Dragon on Dragon’s Den,
Co-Founder, Clearbanc,
Co-Founder, SnapSaves (Acquired by Groupon),
Director on the board of Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN), Shad Valley and Freshii,
Ranked in WXN’s “100 Most Powerful in Canada” and listed at the only Canadian on Forbes “Millennial on a Mission” list.
Testimonial
Michael Wang(Co-Founder of Tapplock)
The First Prize winner of The First Innovation & Entrepreneurship Innovation Competition, Toronto Division; China qualifier
It's a top-level competition that was organized professionally. The judges were experienced veterans of various industries and provided insightful advice. The complimentary pitch training session with mentors was helpful. It shed light on what VCs see in a pitch and how to tactically present to grab their attention. I also got to meet fantastic entrepreneurs from Toronto and around the world, and having driven, resourceful and fun people around is one of the best assets to have. Apart from the prize-money, we were also introduced to VCs and industry experts who gave us invaluable guidance on supply chain in China. The event was covered by many mainstream media, which gave Tapplock great exposure and coverage. I was genuinely impressed.
It's a top-level competition that was organized professionally. The judges were experienced veterans of various industries and provided insightful advice. The complimentary pitch training session with mentors was helpful. It shed light on what VCs see in a pitch and how to tactically present to grab their attention. I also got to meet fantastic entrepreneurs from Toronto and around the world, and having driven, resourceful and fun people around is one of the best assets to have. Apart from the prize-money, we were also introduced to VCs and industry experts who gave us invaluable guidance on supply chain in China. The event was covered by many mainstream media, which gave Tapplock great exposure and coverage. I was genuinely impressed.
Nazanin Khalili(Technical Director of FlexCap)
The Second Prize winner of The First Innovation & Entrepreneurship Innovation Competition, Toronto Division; the Third Prize winner of the The First Innovation & Entrepreneurship Innovation Competition, Industrial Finals
The competition was organized extremely well and the judging panel was also exceptionally professional and fair. I’ve had the pleasure in interacting with many people like myself in the start-up business, as well as established entrepreneurs with great experience and exceptional expertise in their fields. It was a great learning experience for all the teams in shaping their pitch, investor presentations, as well as business proposals. I’ve been lucky to be selected to participate in the final competition and it was a great experience in that I was not only representing my company, but also the start-up ecosystem of Canada as a whole. It was an exceptional rewarding experience for me.
To us, it was never about the cash prizes (thou it was very nice to have), it was about networking, learning and improving our product strategies, which I thought we have been able to achieve with the competition. The organizers spent a lot of time and effort in organizing business networking, pitch practice sessions, as well as other events that allowed us to be better informed with regards to our market landscape and potential collaborators. We were also able to form close relationships with several companies from the networking sessions, benefiting us in strengthening our product offerings as well as expanding our customer networks.
Sci Innovation Centre has been actively helping participating companies not only during the competition, but also after the competition with business-related tasks and recommendations. FlexCap was also invited to visit Shenzhen after the competition during the past summer to visit the potential site for establishing a new entity in Shenzhen with better reach into the China’s technology market. The introduction visit was exceptionally helpful for us to decide and choose where to locate our commercialization platform in China.
The competition was organized extremely well and the judging panel was also exceptionally professional and fair. I’ve had the pleasure in interacting with many people like myself in the start-up business, as well as established entrepreneurs with great experience and exceptional expertise in their fields. It was a great learning experience for all the teams in shaping their pitch, investor presentations, as well as business proposals. I’ve been lucky to be selected to participate in the final competition and it was a great experience in that I was not only representing my company, but also the start-up ecosystem of Canada as a whole. It was an exceptional rewarding experience for me.
To us, it was never about the cash prizes (thou it was very nice to have), it was about networking, learning and improving our product strategies, which I thought we have been able to achieve with the competition. The organizers spent a lot of time and effort in organizing business networking, pitch practice sessions, as well as other events that allowed us to be better informed with regards to our market landscape and potential collaborators. We were also able to form close relationships with several companies from the networking sessions, benefiting us in strengthening our product offerings as well as expanding our customer networks.
Sci Innovation Centre has been actively helping participating companies not only during the competition, but also after the competition with business-related tasks and recommendations. FlexCap was also invited to visit Shenzhen after the competition during the past summer to visit the potential site for establishing a new entity in Shenzhen with better reach into the China’s technology market. The introduction visit was exceptionally helpful for us to decide and choose where to locate our commercialization platform in China.
Aaron Guan(General Manager, BOCO Technology Inc)
The Third Prize winner of The First Innovation & Entrepreneurship Innovation Competition, Toronto Division; China qualifier
My key takeaway here is that China in general and Shenzhen in particular takes innovation and entrepreneurship very seriously. This is clearly evident from the budget and resources they have put forward to ensure the competition is run as smoothly as possible both in Canada and in China. What impressed me the most is how they were able to bring together thousands of projects all over the world under one roof, and still provide the individual attention and advice directly relevant to each participant/project. They focus on a few key areas such as clean tech, IT, biomedical sector and materials & advanced manufacturing. They were able to find industry experts to act as coaches for the founders, they were able to directly connect us with investors and funding sources applicable to the startups, and most importantly providing us with the platform to showcase our work.
In this day and age, China is not a market that any company should miss. This Innovation & Entrepreneurship International Competition is a fantastic bridge for Canadian companies to understand the Chinese market and the resources available to help them get there. BOCO has already benefited from our participation. We have built a number of partnerships in China as a result and we have already drafted plans to expand our operation to China. There are many resources that Canadian companies can tap into in China, be it funding, policy or infrastructure support. And a market of 1.4 Billion people is not to be missed. Sci Innovation Center would be a great partner for Canadian startups to start with, and the prize money from the competition doesn't hurt either
My key takeaway here is that China in general and Shenzhen in particular takes innovation and entrepreneurship very seriously. This is clearly evident from the budget and resources they have put forward to ensure the competition is run as smoothly as possible both in Canada and in China. What impressed me the most is how they were able to bring together thousands of projects all over the world under one roof, and still provide the individual attention and advice directly relevant to each participant/project. They focus on a few key areas such as clean tech, IT, biomedical sector and materials & advanced manufacturing. They were able to find industry experts to act as coaches for the founders, they were able to directly connect us with investors and funding sources applicable to the startups, and most importantly providing us with the platform to showcase our work.
In this day and age, China is not a market that any company should miss. This Innovation & Entrepreneurship International Competition is a fantastic bridge for Canadian companies to understand the Chinese market and the resources available to help them get there. BOCO has already benefited from our participation. We have built a number of partnerships in China as a result and we have already drafted plans to expand our operation to China. There are many resources that Canadian companies can tap into in China, be it funding, policy or infrastructure support. And a market of 1.4 Billion people is not to be missed. Sci Innovation Center would be a great partner for Canadian startups to start with, and the prize money from the competition doesn't hurt either
