Deadline: December 3, 2018 00:00 CET| Apply here
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Eligibility: Detailed eligibility requirements are listed below

Global Social Venture Competition 2019

The Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) empowers the next generation of social entrepreneurs by providing them with mentoring, exposure, and over $80,000 in prizes to transform their ideas into ventures that address the world’s most pressing challenges.

Teams from across the globe learn how to design scalable models through a process that emphasizes stakeholder discovery, business innovation, and social impact assessment.

Who should apply?

The Global Social Venture Competition seeks to support the most promising early-stage for-profit or nonprofit solutions that address the world’s most pressing social challenges using technology.

Successful ventures show the highest, most integrated financial and social and/or environmental returns, demonstrating “blended value”.

For the 2019 competition, all ventures must have a technology component to their venture, whether a product, hardware, software, web platform, mobile app, wireless, etc.

technology for good

Solutions should utilize “technology for good” in some form, whether the entire venture is focused on a technology-based solution or if the venture has some degree of a technology component built into the solution.

The competition occurs over three rounds. During each round of the competition, entrant teams present the social, financial, and environmental values of their business, gaining valuable feedback from and exposure to some of the greatest minds in social innovation.

Eligibility requirements for ventures

• Submitted ventures should aim to be: financially sustainable or profitable; whether it is a for-profit, non-profit, or hybrid business model, your venture must aim to be self-sufficient on earned revenue.
• Ventures should include a technology component, whether a technology-based solution or a technology component is utilized to address the solution. In this instance, technology is defined very broadly. Eligible ventures should include products and services developed from the application of scientific knowledge. This may involve software, hardware as well as other devices and products. The technology can be manifest in the product or service itself or be the way in which the product or service is delivered.
• Submitted ventures should be scalable long term. This criterion will mean different things for each business. Scalability will take into account the potential for growth of the business, both financially and in its social impact.
• Submitted ventures must have a quantifiable social and/or environmental bottom line incorporated into their mission and practices.
• Your entry must include a financial analysis as well as a Social Impact Assessment (SIA), including the Social Value Proposition and Social Indicators. Learn more on the SIA page of the website.
• Submitted ventures must be less than 2 years old (with the start of the venture marked by incorporation or first income, whichever occurred first) as of December 31, 2018.
• Submitted ventures may not be a wholly owned subsidiary of an existing entity (of either a for-profit or nonprofit entity).
  Submitted ventures must not have received more than $250,000 in funding from venture capital, private investors, grants (government or foundation), loans, or other funding sources (excluding in-kind) as of December 31, 2018.
• Lifetime revenue should not exceed $500,000 as of December 31, 2018.
• GSVC has the right to investigate funding and qualifications of ventures to assure that they are a truly early stage.

Eligibility requirements for teams

• Your team must include a student, current or recent graduate*, from any level of higher education (undergraduate, masters level/graduate, or doctoral) in any area of study in the world;
• Recent Bachelor’s degree holders must have completed their degree with four (4) years of the application deadline (December 31, 2018).
• Recent Master’s or Doctoral level degree holders must have completed their degree within two (2) years of the application deadline (December 31, 2018).
• The student or recent student must be actively involved in the venture (i.e., a founder or co-founder, actively participating in the development of the business or actively working on the business).
• Your team should include a statement describing the student’s level of involvement.
• The student or recent student must be one of the team’s presenters and must be available to answer judges’ questions regarding the business in the final two rounds of the competition.

Interested in applying for the Global Social Venture Competition 2019? Register your participation by following the registration link and taking the suggested steps.

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