ActúaUPM is celebrating the 20th edition of its Business Ideas Competition and a Startup Competition to recognise the best business ideas, and the startups with the most potential. On this edition, applications are also open for EELISA members! It is a great opportunity to entrepreneur with the support of a team with over 20 years of experience.

The competition is open to “university teams” composed of faculty members and/or bachelor and graduate students (master or doctoral students), administrative staff, alumni from the last 10 years (since 2012-2013 graduation) from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Other participants are eligible as long as they receive the invitation from ActúaUPM International based on existing agreements. At the time of writing, this includes some EELISA consortium universities and Illinois Institute of Technology, as established in the corresponding agreements.

The selected projects will have access to:

– Entrepreneurship and Business Model Courses: to validate business ideas and create a high-impact business model. Participants also learn about how to engage early customers and investors.

– Experts Advice for the development of the startup: actúaupm team includes professionals with many years of experience in advising teams of entrepreneurs. And participants will have access to mentoring from successful entrepreneurs and seasoned investors.

– Demo Days and Talk Series: projects with big potential will participate in demonstration sessions and pitch days, where they can present their companies to selected investors. Different Talks Cycles on topics of interest and product presentations to improve and network projects and ideas are organized during the competition

– Network of Experts and Investors I&E UPM: belonging to this network has been instrumental for start-ups to improve their solution and attract seed funding and venture capital.Network of Experts and Investors I&E UPM: belonging to this network has been instrumental for start-ups to improve their solution and attract seed funding and venture capital.

Why participate?

– This is the leading Entrepreneurship Programme amongst Spanish universities

– 45,000 euros in prizes

– Training in entrepreneurship (# 1 in the ranking of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology EIT Master DS and HCID)

– Network of contacts and access to the Alumni Club

– 321 start-ups launched so far

– 157 million euros of investment raised by start-ups from actúaupm

– 70% of start-ups are still active in the third year

– More than 6.000 business ideas received

During the first phase, competitors can earn prizes of 1,000 euros per team if they are amongst the ten best ideas in the contest. Meanwhile, three prizes will be handed in the final phase: a First prize of €15,000, a Second prize of €10,000, a Third prize of €5,000. Besides, a special prize of €5,000 to the best business model developed mainly by university bachelor’s or master’s degree students.

*This competition is sponsored by Banco Santander, Ayuntamiento de Madrid and EELISA Unfolds Project (EIT Digital)

*This activity is also part of the EELISA InnoCORE project

REGISTER HERE

REGISTRATION DEADLINE

March 21st, 2023