Global Social Venture Competition for Aspiring Entrepreneurs 2018

Application Deadline: 4th December, 2017

Global Finals: April 11-13, 2018

Eligible Countries: All

To be taken at (country): Applicant’s chosen country and Graduate School Business and Society at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

About the Award: 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.

GSVC awards prizes to early-stage social venture teams that show the highest, most integrated financial and social returns – businesses that demonstrate blended value.

Type: Entrepreneurship

Eligibility: 

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.
• 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 lineincorporated 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, 2016.
• 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, 2016.
• Lifetime revenue should not exceed $500,000 as of December 31, 2016.
• GSVC has the right to investigate funding and qualifications of ventures to assure that they are 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 students must meet the following criteria:  
  • Recent Bachelor’s degree holders must have completed their degree with four (4) years of the application deadline (December 31, 2016).
  • Recent Master’s or Doctoral level degree holders must have completed their degree within two (2) years of the application deadline (December 31, 2016)
• The student or recent student must be actively involved in the venture (i.e., a founder or co-founder, actively participating in 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.

Selection: The Global Social Venture Competition leads entrant teams through an experiential learning process to develop innovative, scalable solutions to the world’s greatest challenges.  Through our global network of 14 partner schools and competitions, we give teams the connections, support, and exposure needed to advance their social ventures.

Each of the competition’s three rounds also asks teams to build on past learnings and focus on distinct emphasis areas. A team’s ability to demonstrate progress in these areas will be an important determinant of its venture’s overall score, which in every round is evaluated on business potential, social impact potential, and likelihood of success.

Number of Awardees: 6

Value of Programme: 

• FIRST PLACE AWARD: $40,000
• SECOND PLACE AWARD: $25,000
• THIRD PLACE AWARD: $10,000
• PRIYA HAJI MEMORIAL AWARD: $2,500
• PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD: $1,500
• QUICK PITCH AWARD: $1,000

How to Apply: Apply here

Visit Programme Webpage for details

Award Provider: The Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC), University  of California, Berkeley