The Scottish business competition has seen 111 entries for the 2014 competition, almost double the number of last year's submissions.
Converge Challenge, the annual entrepreneurship start-up programme aimed at Scottish universities and research institutes, has received 111 entries for its 2014 edition. This represents an increase of 83% on 2013’s total. The programme, which has been running for five years, has seen in fact seen the number increase each year.
Converge Challenge offers a first prize of £60,000 ($102,000) in cash and £56,000 ($95,000) worth of business support. Submissions closed on May 2, 2014, and participants will now be selected for the Elevator Pitch stage which will take place on June 3, 2014 at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. If selected, they will have to deliver a 60 second pitch to a panel of judges and an audience of about a hundred people. Following this, the participants will have to fight through a series of tasks, before the winners of the competition are announced on September 30, 2014 at the awards dinner held at Heriot Watt University.
Since its first launch in 2010, Converge Challenge has delivered a nearly 30% incorporation rate, with four out of five of these businesses going on to secure follow-on funding. Alongside the main £60,000 prize, Converge Challenge also runs a smaller Kickstart category worth £2,000 ($3,400) for early-stage projects, and a Social Enterprise category worth £10,000 ($17,000).
Olga Kozlova, director of Converge Challenge, said: “As our economy continues on its road to recovery, it is crucial that we can keep the pipeline of innovative ideas coming forward from our university-based flowing and do our best to help the individuals develop them into successful profitable businesses.”