More than 1,256 participants – over 60 per cent more than last year – from 249 teams are taking part in this year’s 928 Challenge, the startup competition for Portuguese-speaking countries (PSC) and China.
Last year’s inaugural competition was joined by 780 students representing 51 universities making up a total of 153 teams.
Until 12 October, participants are taking part in an online bootcamp, being trained to “fine-tune their business ideas focusing on sustainability and bridging the PSC with China” and “develop their ideas”, with the PSC teams working to promote their products and services in China while the Chinese teams will promote theirs in the Portuguese-speaking countries of their choice.
Speakers and mentors this year include SJM Resorts Director of Sustainability Bernard Cheng, Acelera Angola CEO Jose Carlos Dos Santos, CesulLab CEO Gustavo Franco (Brazil), InnovaLab GW CEO Adulai Bary (Guinea-Bissau) and Startup Leiria Managing Director Vitor Ferreira (Portugal).
Like last year, only 16 teams – the eight best university teams and eight best startups – will be shortlisted for the final on 29 October.
“From 13-29 Oct will be intense days where we will review all the projects. We have more than 30 mentors and judges based in Macao, mainland China, Portugal, Brazil and some other PSC,” said 928 Challenge Co-founder and City University of Macau (CityU) lecturer Marco Rizzolio.
The selected 16 will pitch their business ideas in front of the judges on the final day. The winners will be given access to business-matching meetings with potential clients or investors.
Rizzolio co-founded the competition alongside CityU Dean of the Faculty of Business José Alves, aiming to “establish an entrepreneurship-oriented community among all participants and raise awareness among the public and economic agents of the business opportunities” arising from the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao) – better known as Forum Macao.
The 928 Challenge was named after nine cities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), two special administrative regions and then eight Portuguese-speaking member states of Forum Macao. Equatorial Guinea officially became the 10th member of Forum Macao – the group’s 9th Portuguese-speaking member – on 10 April this year.
In July, the 928 Challenge won the Best Startup Ideation & Competition Programme Award from the Angola Innovation Summit 2002.
Last year’s competition was won by a team from Portugal’s University of Porto, while a team from Guinea-Bissau’s Universidade Lusófona Guiné came second as the third place was shared by two teams – one from Brazil’s State University of Rio de Janeiro and the other from mainland China’s Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University.
The 928 Challenge is co-organised by Forum Macao, City University of Macau, University of Macau, Macau University of Science and Technology, University of Saint Joseph, Macau Institute for Tourism Studies, United Nations University Institute in Macau, Shenzhen University, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University and Rio de Janeiro State University.
This year’s sponsors include Galaxy Entertainment Group, Alibaba Cloud, CESL Asia, BNU, Millennium BCP, MdME Lawyers, ISA TanTec, Banco Luso Internacional, MOX Link, C&C Lawyers, Fidelidade and KNJ Investments.
