Press Release – “Win the Future” 2022 Venture Contest

• 2022 “Win the Future” International Venture Contest Singapore Regional Kicks Off

In order to further accelerate the gathering of high-level talents and teams at home and abroad, and help Suzhou build a “Entrepreneur’s Paradise and Innovator’s Paradise”, the 2022 “Win the Future” International Venture Contest is back! Starting in March, project auditions will be launched, and the global final will be held in July. 

This competition will continue to be hosted by the Suzhou International Elite Entrepreneurship Enterprise Alliance, and supported by Suzhou International and Domestic Maker Incubation Center, Suzhou Talent Work Overseas Cooperation Organization among other agencies. 

The contest will include 5 domestic divisions in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Greater Bay Area, Yangtze River Delta, Central China, and Southwest China, as well as 10 overseas divisions in Oceania, Sweden, Japan, North America, Europe, Finland, Singapore, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the global finals.

“Winning the Future” International Venture Contest was founded in 2011. Since then, it has been established to be a global high-level talent innovation and entrepreneurship competition brand created by Suzhou. The contest aims to continuously explore outstanding talents (teams) and projects in leading industries and cutting-edge technology fields, promote the precise connection of talents, projects, industries and capital, and build a green channel for innovation and entrepreneurship to Suzhou. As of 2021, the competition has successfully held 10 sessions with a total of 74 events, attracting more than 8,096 projects and a total of more than 29,000 talents.

This competition is open to the world for project solicitation and audition, and the finals will be contested by the winning projects of each sub-competition area. 

The following is the event information of the 2022 “Win the Future” International Venture Contest (Singapore Division):

Sponsor and organizer of the Singapore sub-division

• Suzhou International Elite Entrepreneurship Enterprise Alliance
• Suzhou (Singapore International Maker Incubation Centre)
• Nanyang High-Tech Innovation Centre (Suzhou) 
• ACIES Vesntures Pte Ltd
• Entrepreneurship Enterprise Alliance

Singapore Division Schedule

Registration stage      : March 14, 2022 to March 30, 2022

Division Finals Date    : April 19, 2022

The event format of the finals will be in hybrid format. Esteem judges in Suzhou will be judging onsite via video conferencing connection with the Singapore Division Finalists. 

Singapore Divisional Finals

First prize                                :  30,000 RMB (~6,374.42 SGD)

Two x Second-placed prizes :  20,000 RMB (~4,249.61 SGD)

Three x Third-placed prizes  :  10,000 RMB (~2,124.81 SGD)

Rewards Policy

• The winning projects are also directly shortlisted as candidate projects for the global finals of the “Winning the Future” International Maker Competition.
• The first prize winner will also be directly eligible to enter the interview process in the Suzhou Leading Talent Program. 
• The second and third prize winners can break through the limitations of academic qualifications and time in Suzhou to apply.

Grand Final Prizes

First prize                        :  100,000 RMB (~21,248.07 SGD)

Three x Second prizes   :   50,000 RMB (~10,24.03 SGD)

Four x  Third prizes        :   20,000 RMB (~4,249.61 SGD)

Six Consolation prizes   :   10,000 RMB (~2,124.81 SGD)

Rewards Policy

• Those who meet the basic conditions for applying for the Suzhou Leading Talent Program, the first prize winner and the second and third prize winners who have received market-oriented fund investment of more than 10 million yuan (subject to the actual receipt) can be directly identified as Suzhou Innovation. 
• Entrepreneurial leading talents; other second and third prize winners can directly enter the interview and defense of the Suzhou Leading Talent Program.
• The winning projects will be preferentially recommended to the cooperation (relevant) venture capital institutions of the competition, and will be given priority for loan and credit support from the partner banks of the competition.
• During the global finals, the participating guests will enjoy differential transportation subsidies and free board and lodging during the Suzhou International Elite Entrepreneurship Week.

Interested startups are encouraged to sign up before the deadline.

“Innovations will be a big part of growth in the economy as the world recovers from the pandemic. NTUIC’s mandate to foster closer integrations among the global innovation and startup ecosystem looks to bring synergistic partnership into Suzhou, where the startup environment is still growing very vibrantly,”  said Eason Wang, Senior Development Manager of NTUIC.

“ACIES is very excited to continue to work with Suzhou stakeholders to facilitate cross-border collaborations for startup. In times of immense volatility, we hope to bring more opportunities to spur budding startup ideas and give developing startups platforms to grow globally.” said Jose He, CEO of ACIES Ventures. 

About Suzhou Innovation and Entrepreneurship Environment

Suzhou, located in the central part of the Yangtze River Delta and the southeastern part of Jiangsu Province, is adjacent to Shanghai in the east, Zhejiang in the south, Taihu Lake in the west, and the Yangtze River in the north, with a total area of 8,657 square kilometers. It has the reputation of “paradise on earth”.

In 2020, the gross domestic product of Suzhou will reach a new level of 2 trillion yuan, ranking sixth in the country; the total industrial output value and industrial added value above the scale will rank among the top three cities in the country, and the output value of high-tech industries and strategic emerging industries will rank among the top three in the country. The proportions reached 50.9% and 55.7% respectively; there are 144 domestic A-share listed companies, ranking fifth in the country, and 20 companies listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, ranking third in the country. 

As one of the three major industrial cities in the country, Suzhou has strong industrial vertical integration strength in the world. There are 10 advanced manufacturing clusters of 100 billion such as new display, optical communication, and high-end equipment manufacturing. In the new generation of information technology, biological Industries such as medicine, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology applications have gradually formed leading advantages. 

Among them, the biomedical industry has been selected as a national strategic emerging industry cluster. The ability of scientific and technological innovation has been greatly improved. The total social R&D expenditure accounts for about 3.7% of the regional GDP. The number of high-tech enterprises in the city has reached 9,772, and the comprehensive strength of scientific and technological innovation has ranked first in the province for 11 consecutive years.

At present, the total number of talents in Suzhou exceeds 2.93 million, the total number of high-level talents is nearly 270,000, and the number of returnees from overseas studies exceeds 50,000. For the ninth consecutive year, Suzhou has been selected as the “Most Attractive Chinese City in the Eyes of Foreign Talents”.

At present, Suzhou is firmly grasping the historical opportunity of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and the “One Belt, One Road” and other national strategies, deeply integrating into the construction of the Shanghai metropolitan area, comprehensively promoting the integration of Shanghai and Suzhou, and anchoring the creation of “entrepreneurship”. To achieve the goal of “a paradise for innovators and a paradise for innovators”, it will focus on promoting independent innovation and open innovation, comprehensively improve the ability of scientific and technological innovation and the level of digital construction, and strive to create a “most beautiful window” to show the world of socialist modernization. Suzhou has unlimited opportunities and unlimited space, providing an infinitely broad development stage for global elites.

About NTUIC

Nanyang High-tech Innovation Center was established in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province in 2017, An innovative platform authorized by NTUitive, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, it was approved as a construction project of the Jiangsu Province Science and Technology Plan International Technology Transfer Service Agency in 2019 and is a member of Suzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau Overseas Cooperation Organization.

About ACIES Ventures

A boutique venture building and innovation enabler studio for founders and corporate entities to come together to jointly solve pressing problems in today’s increasingly complex and rigorous business, political and social landscape. ACIES looks to enable visionary entrepreneurs and technology talents to develop promising and fast-growing start-ups through empowering with transferrable, applicable and scalable skillsets, regardless which point of the entrepreneurship journey they are at.