Global Startup Competition Offers Funding for 18 Winners

Early stage startups are encouraged to apply now for a chance to get funding from the newly formed Global Innovator Fund, which is sponsoring a competition that will award 18 winners a share in $1 million in funding from the fund’s limited partners including Cheetah Mobile and Sequoia Capital.

All startups accepted into G-Startup Worldwide receive the opportunity to pitch their company for funding.

Each local G-Startup victor will receive a $50,000 investment prize, while second place will receive $20,000.

The nine local G-Startup winners will pitch one final time at GMIC Silicon Valley, with the overall champion receiving an added $250,000 and the runner-up receiving an added $120,000.

Additionally, each local winner receives a free trip to the finals at GMIC Silicon Valley, to be held September 28-30, 2016.

Applications are now open for:

• Tel Aviv (March 22, 2016; http://telaviv.thegmic.com/) and
• Beijing (April 28-30, 2016; http://beijing.thegmic.com/)

The Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC), will host a G-Startup competition at all nine GMIC 2016 locations, including additional stops in:

• Tokyo (July 15, 2016)
• Jakarta (August 9, 2016)
• São Paulo (August 24, 2016)
• Bangalore (November 16-17, 2016)
• Taipei (October 21-22, 2016)
• Silicon Valley (September 28-30, 2016)

Past judges for GMIC competitions include Lei Jun, CEO and Founder at Xiaomi; Dave McClure, Managing Director at 500 Startups;James Shen, Managing Director at Qualcomm Ventures; and Tim Chang, Managing Director at Mayfield Fund.

Startup alumni include App Annie, the go-to place for understanding app analytics, and Didi Kuaidi, a skyrocketing ride-sharing service that hosted over a billion passengers in 2015 alone.

GWC has existing investments in startups around the world, focused in China, India, and the United States.

G-Startup Worldwide intends to become the world's most influential global startup competition, with over 100,000 expected attendees for 2016 GMIC events, an expected 1,500+ startup submissions, and 700+ mobile executives within the G-Network portfolio.

Startups interested in competing are recommended to have raised a seed round not exceeding $1.5 million and have produced a minimum viable product with initial signs of traction in its local market.

Submissions from mobile, IoT, wearables, virtual reality (VR), drones, robotics, education, health, cloud, social, and commerce are welcome, with preference given to startups that show evidence of making a profoundly positive impact on the world at large.

GWC was founded in 2008 with the vision to be the world's most influential mobile innovation platform. It includes the G-Network, a member network with over 700 CEO industry members; the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) event series; GHome, a China-US innovation incubator; and RobotX, a leading  AI and Robotics innovation platform.

GMIC, the Global Mobile Internet Conference, hosts mobile executives, entrepreneurs, developers, and investors from around the globe and across platforms to build partnerships, to learn from industry thought leaders, to better understand mobile technology trends, and to shed light on how mobile is positively changing the world.