Grab a chance to fly to the world!
Grab a chance to fly to the world!  

2016
Shenzhen
“Entrepreneurship Star” Contest
Elimination Round in Japan

日本語 English
Elimination Round in JapanSep. 25 (Sun) SemifinalIn November (the date will be announced as soon as details are fixed)  FinalEarly Nov. (planned)
How to apply
Outline
The elimination round of the 2016 Shenzhen “Entrepreneurship Star” Contest is to be held in Japan at Osaka Innovation Hub, which supports entrepreneurs under the theme of “to connect directly to the world”! We recruit applicants who are venture companies or teams to participate in it.
2016 Shenzhen “Entrepreneurship Star” Contest is a pitch contest held in China hosted by Shenzhen City and Nanshan District and the eliminations are to be held worldwide. It is evaluated as an international pitch contest with 2,130 companies or teams (from 9 countries,42 strongholds in the world) participated in last year.
The main feature is that participants with superb business plans will get generous support to scale up their businesses, including getting opportunities to raise funds through entrepreneurs-supporting network in Nanshan District, called China’s Silicon Valley, and sharing innovation resources. They can also reside in a Nanshan incubator.
Though Silicon Valley in the US is known as a holy site of innovation, more companies have been developing their businesses in Asia first, and then tapping into a global market including Europe and the US. Now grab a chance to develop your business to the world. We will support you as much as we can!
“Entrepreneurship Star” Contest
This is a contest initiated by Nanshan District, China, in 2008. It has grown to an international contest run by five organizations such as Shenzhen City and the NPO STEA. By 2015, 7010 projects (942 overseas) in total participated in it, which led 200 projects to obtain funding of more than two billion RMB (approx. 37 billion yen).
Shenzhen City
As a window of China’s reform and development, it boasts the fourth largest economic size in the mainland in terms of GDP. It has strong R&D capabilities and mature industrial chains with many manufacturing sites gathering from around the world.
Nanshan District
Called as China’s Silicon Valley, it is packed with more than 100 listed companies and more than 1,000 high-tech companies including Tencent and STE. It has superb infrastructure with more than 40 incubations for entrepreneurs, helping new businesses to accelerate.
Successful cases from the contest
We introduce three successful examples from many companies that have made a leap forward after their participation in this event.
  • Tao Wang

    - CEO of DJI, leader Unmanned Aerial Vehicle CEO of DJI
    - Winner Enterprise of 2010 Entrepreneurship Star Contest.
    CommentBased on advice from experts, we cut some of our sideline projects, and focused on more specific goals. Another benefit was that the contest provided us a platform to highlight the company and get us in touch with the VC funds.
  • Kingsignal Technology Co., Ltd.

    - Founded in April 2002, in Shenzhen.
    - Solution provider for high-end signal cables, connectors, assemblies and accessories.
    - Winner of Project of 2008 Entrepreneurship Star Contest.
    - Listed in Shenzhen Growth Enterprise Market Board (GEM)(300252 SZ)
  • Ants Animation Studios

    - Founded in Jun. 2006, as an original animation production company.
    - Winner of Project of 2011 Entrepreneurship Star Contest.
    - Acquired seed funds in the first week of the Contest.
    - Currently planning for IPO.
Outline
How to pitch
- Adopt the “6+9” mode.
- 6-minutes project presentation followed by 9-minutes Q&A by judges.
- No restrictions on the way of presentation.
[Languages to be used] Startups who proceed to the semifinal after passing the elimination round in Japan must make a presentation in either English or Chinese. Thank you for your understanding. In the elimination round in Japan, in principle, English should be used, but Japanese is also acceptable.
Categories recruiting
We recruit participants for the following three categories.
  • Growing-up Group

    1. Companies founded within 5 years (registered after Jan. 1, 2010)
    2. The total sales in 2014 is less than 110 million yen.
  • Start-up Group

    1. Not yet registered in China this year. 2. Entrepreneur teams with innovation and business plans ready for implementation.
  • Undergraduate Group

    1. Undergraduate students, or recent graduates who graduated less than one year ago. 2. Entrepreneur teams with business plans
Timeline of the Contest
The contest is held in order of [Elimination Round in Japan]→[Semifinal]→[Final]. The elimination round and the semifinal are held at Osaka Innovation Hub (Osaka City) and the final is held at a venue in Shenzhen. The maximum number of participants in the elimination round in Japan is 30, and 25% of them will proceed to the semifinal. OIH selects the judges for the elimination round in Japan, and the organizer selects them for the semifinal.
  • The elimination round in Japan

    Date and time: Sep. 25 (Sun)
    Venue: Osaka Innovation Hub (Osaka City)
    Language: English or Japanese
    Access *Those who cannot come to Osaka can pitch on Skype. *The elimination round in Osaka is held with closed doors. We will inform participants of the schedule individually.
  • Semifinal

    Date and time: In November (the date will be announced as soon as details are fixed)
    Venue: Osaka Innovation Hub (Osaka City)
    Language: English or Chinese
    Access *Skype connects the semifinal with Shenzhen.
  • Final

    Date and time: Nov. (planned)
    Venue: Nanshan Digital Culture Industrial Base in Shenzhen.
    Language: English or Chinese

    *Transportation and accommodation fee to Shenzhen are borne by participants. However, participants will receive a minimum of 30,000 RMB from the organizer within about a month after the event. Refer to the following awards for details.
Winners’ benefits
Awards
  • Growing-up Group (for 20 teams, 3.3 million RMB)

    First prize (1 team)
    500,000 RMB
    Second prize (2 teams)
    300,000 RMB
    Third prize (5 teams)
    200,000 RMB
    Fourth prize (12 teams)
    100,000 RMB
  • Start-up Group (for 20 teams, 1.8 million RMB)

    First prize (1 team)
    300,000 RMB
    Second prize (2 teams)
    200,000 RMB
    Third prize (5 teams)
    100,000 RMB
    Fourth prize (12 teams)
    50,000 RMB
  • Undergraduate Group (for 20 teams, 1.01 million RMB)

    First prize (1 team)
    200,000 RMB
    Second prize (2 teams)
    100,000 RMB
    Third prize (5 teams)
    50,000 RMB
    Fourth prize (12 teams)
    30,000 RMB
  • Individual award

    Total 890,000 RMB
Support, etc.
- Outstanding projects will get funding opportunities from the Star Entrepreneur Investor Alliance and the Crowd-funding Platform.
- The companies get financial support through the Nanshan Technology Finance Plan, and the companies that have received investments from financial institutes can receive interest subsidies.
- The companies can reside in the Nanshan incubator and enjoy the entrepreneur services including startup training, management consulting, mentorship, patent application and innovation resource sharing.
How to apply
Please complete a pre-entry from below.
pre-entry

After finishing the pre-entry, confirm the following and send the entry sheet and the PowerPoint file for the presentation on the event day by e-mail.
Entry sheet
The entry sheet differs depending on a category. Choose the sheet for the appropriate category from the three listed in the outline, and download it from below. *Japanese is acceptable in filling the entry sheet.
Growing-up Group Start-up Group Undergraduate Group
PowerPoint
Submit the PowerPoint file for the presentation on the event day.
*Make sure the volume is within 10 MB.
*Japanese is acceptable.

Submission
Send the documents to ohclub@innovation-osaka.jp with the title of “Star elimination round in Japan, submitting documents”
Deadline: Sep. 18 (Sun)
Judges
We will announce judges at a later date.
Office
Osaka Innovation Hub
Knowledge Capital Tower C 7F, Grand Front Osaka
3-1, Ohuka-cho, Kita-ku, Osaka City, 5300011
Tel: +81-(0)6-6359-3004
E-mail: ohclub@innovation-osaka.jp
Website: http://innovation-osaka.jp
Organizer
Organizer of the elimination round in Japan
Osaka Innovation Hub


Organizer of 2016 Shenzhen “Entrepreneurship Star” Contest
Shenzhen City/Nanshan District


Plan and management
STEA