Winning the Nanochallenge and Polymerchallenge Grand Prizes means not only receiving money to back the new ventures, but also becoming part of Veneto Nanotech and IMAST Italian high tech clusters.
The prizes are to be intended as early stage funding for start-ups.
The Grand Prize is composed of 2 Prizes of 300.000 €, as follows:
Nanochellenge Grand Prize
300.000 € seed capital investments from Veneto Nanotech, the Italian cluster of nanotechnology, including cash money and incubation services.
Polymerchallenge Grand Prize
300.000 € seed capital investment from IMAST, the Italian technological district on polymeric and composite materials engineering and structures
Both prizes include:
- cash to found the new companies preferably in Veneto (nanotechnology) or Campania (polymer-based materials) regions;
- access to the facilities of the clusters;
- use of equipments and labs;
- collaboration with the researchers of the Cluster;
- management support;
- networking with investors and industrial partners.
The two 300.000 euro Prizes given by Veneto Nanotech and IMAST are intended to effectively cover the capital requirements for new start-ups to be founded in Italy. In addition, in-kind services are tailored to provide valuable support for all the organisational needs a business and its founders have to face.
The winners must use the money to develop their business ideas described in their business plan into new, hi-tech, innovative and successful start-ups.
The winners are selected during the whole set course of the business plan competition: the main actors involved in the evaluations procedure are:
- the Organizing Committee
- the experts/consultants of the mentoring sessions
- the Scientific and the Contest Juries (the Contest Jury is composed by experts of the investment and entrepreneurial community involved in making early-stage investment decisions on an ongoing basis
- the instructors of the Boot Camp (Maverick Angels staff)
The choice of the best teams is guided by different factors:
- availability of the team in attending all the selection procedure
- the completion of the Executive Summary, the Business Plan and the requested documentation to be provided to the Organizing Committee in due time
- the signature of the Pledge to Compete
- a scorecard compiled by the Judges, but is also consistent with the approach that would be used by a venture capital or early-stage investor
Finally the winning teams should be the teams in which the judges /Organizing Committee would most likely invest their money.
For further information about Veneto Nanotech please visit www.venetonanotech.it
For further information about IMAST please visit www.imast.biz
