| Type | Non-Profit |
|---|---|
| Industry | Educational |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Headquarters | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Employees | 16 |
| Website | www.venturecup.dk |
Venture Cup Danmark is a non-profit organisation whose object is to discover and empower students and researchers with the purpose of facilitating the realization of their business ideas. This is made possible through the idea and start-up competitions, where students have the opportunity to develop and upgrade their idea and turn it into a viable and successful business. The purpose of Venture Cup is two-fold: to inspire and motivate entrepreneurship among students, and to turn academic knowledge into viable high-growth businesses. A total of 650.000 DKK is awarded yearly to upcoming entrepreneurs.
Venture Cup has been discovering new entrepreneurs since 2000 and it is associated with the three other Venture Cups in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The Danish Venture Cup is run by seven Danish universities (Copenhagen Business School, Technical University of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, University of Southern Denmark, University of Aarhus, Aalborg University and Roskilde University ) and co-funded by public as well as private sponsors [1]. It has local offices in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, Aalborg and Roskilde. The national office is based at the Copenhagen Business School.
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The Venture Cup Startup Competition runs during the spring and awards 50,000 DKK to the best business idea of each of these five categories:
The five winning teams will compete for an additional prize of 200,000 to take home a total prize of 250,000 DKK People can participate to this year's competition by entering a business plan of 10-20 pages.
The Venture Cup Idea Competition [2] runs during the fall and awards 25,000 DKK to the best idea of each of those same categories. Students can participate by entering a 2-3 page executive summary about your business idea and the deadline for submissions is usually around late November, and the finals are in January.
Apart from the money prize, participants get feedback on their ideas from business people, entrepreneurs and investors; obtain practical entrepreneurial skills by attending the training workshops that are held in different universities and gain a valuable network of experienced individuals who can help them succeed.
19,040+ students are in contact with Venture Cup each year.
700+ students participate in Venture Cup competitions each year.
67+ million DKK is contributed to the Danish economy by alumni companies.
80+ new companies have been co-created by Venture Cup.
430+ jobs have been created by Venture Cup alumni companies.
The concept of business plan competitions originates from the U.S. where it was developed in the early 1980s. In the 1990s competitions were organized around the world by McKinsey & Company in cooperation with local universities and business schools. In 1998, McKinsey & Company established Venture Cup in Sweden, and in 2000 as an Øresund-based competition with Denmark and Southern Sweden. Today, Venture Cup is present in four Nordic countries, and a total of more than 2000 submitted plans each year makes it the most important initiative creating high-growth start-up companies in Scandinavia.
In 2003 Denmark got its first nation-wide Venture Cup, organised by McKinsey & Company, Copenhagen Business School, and the Technical University of Denmark. Today, the organising group of universities has expanded to include the seven above mentioned universities.
Venturecup.tv is the online TV-provider on entrepreneurship. It serves stories that help getting over the first steps of business planning. It also keeps track on trends, tricks and thinkers in the entrepreneurial environment.
Winners of Venture Cup Idea Competition 2010
Venture Cup Winners (chosen by the jury [3]):
Applied Technology: Super Light Structures
Cleantech: Blue Power Technologies
Life Science & Medtech: MalariTect
Services: Computerfriend
Software: FutureCad
People's Choice Awards:
Applied Technology: IDM Hoods
Cleantech: ISCR Company
Life Science & Medtech: eQui
Services: IVOTESHOPPING.dk
Software: SocializingU