In accordance with its basic postulates - encouraging entrepreneurial spirit and skills in young people, the Faculty of Economics in Split’s Student Entrepreneurship Incubator is organizing the second international university startup competition called STup! 2021, with the support of City of Split, University of Split, European University of the Sea Alliance (SEA-EU) and the organization WorldChicago.
Although last year COVID-19 prevented the competition taking place, this year it will, on June 18 and 19 in hybrid edition. The competition will be a combination of live performance at the Faculty of Economics, University of Split, and online participation on a virtual platform.
As its name says, this competition primarily promotes students, startups and Split as a venue. The event’s aim is to enable networking of competitors and visitors, to improve entrepreneurial culture among students, and exchange ideas and experiences on an international level. In two days, during this year's event, Split will be a stage of innovation, new technologies and ideas, university projects designed to draw attention of renowned experts, potential clients and investors.
Stup! conference will bring together local and international startups, entrepreneurs, representatives of incubators, accelerators, companies and investors, so, in addition to competitors, investors and accelerators with programs for young innovators and startups will also be presented. The competition will feature a selection of 35 startup teams representing 16 universities from 10 countries around the world. The competition will be attended by startups presenting the following universities: Universities of Split and Zagreb (Croatia), GEA College and University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Universities of Mostar, Sarajevo and Banja Luka (BiH), University of Belgrade (Serbia), Universities of Cadiz, Granada and Malaga (Spain), Pennsylvania State University (USA), University of Gdansk (Poland), University of Latvia (Latvia), University of Malta (Malta) and the Indian Institute of Information technologies in Allahabad (India). University startups will compete according to categories in which they operate, and these categories are covered: AgriTech and bio economics, logistics and mobility, energy and environmental sustainability, robotics and AI/ML, blue economy, education, financial technology, tourism, medicine and quality of life.
Jury members and speakers are experienced people from the world of entrepreneurship and investment management, coming to represent respectable institutions from Hungary, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, Singapore and Portugal. They are:
● Gergo Gulyas, Startup Campus board member, founder and financial director of cLAB Ventures
● Sara Korchmaros, co-founder of cLAB Ventures
● Michael Chaffe, director of Wolves Summit
● Diana Florescu, co-founder of Grai Group
● Arjan Goudsblom, co-founder and director at Preneurz.Amsterdam
● Paulina Bialek, business developer at Expara IDM Ventures
● Andreas Spechtler, owner and director of Silicon Castles
● Iva Rakočević, representative of Kavedon Kapital
In addition to the competition where startup teams will be presenting, there will be 5 invited lectures by:
● Matt Kurleto, owner of Neoteric, on “Developing startup ecosystem”
● Paulo Andrez, president of Green Swan holding company, on “Risk mitigation for startups”
● Andreas Spechtler, on “How to avoid mistakes and become investor-ready”
● Diana Medimorec, from Amazon Web Services, on “Innovation and customer obsession in Amazon”.
● Nikola Pavešić, director of startup ecosystem at Infobip, on “Fireside chat: Infobip Startup Tribe”
The best team will become the "Best University Startup 2021." and take numerous prizes. The grand prize was provided by Infobip, a global IT and telecommunications company, first prize $ 17,500.00, second $ 15,000.00, third $ 12,500.00, and the other three finalists will get $ 10,000.00 each, all intended to use Infobip's communication technology.
The winning startup will also participate and exhibit at the partner Wolves Summit conference to be held in October this year. Wolves Summit is the largest entrepreneurship conference in Central and Eastern Europe, bringing together over 2,000 startup companies looking for investment and investors from around the world. Partners from the EU Startup Summit also secured free participation for the 3 best startup teams. Best startups can also win valuable prizes in form of licenses for various useful startup tools, such as Cuttles, IdeaBuddy and Freedcamp, as well as $ 1,000.00 of active credits for using Amazon Web cloud Services. Company Ensoco will provide the best startup team with 6 months of free business consulting in its first or conceptual phase.
In addition to valuable prizes, it is worth noting that partners from The Works Coworking made the use of their premises available to all STup! 2021 guests and competitors for work and preparation, of the City of Split’s Tourist Board supported the organization, the company Dalmacijavino provided beverages for participants and Promet Split secured free rides on city buses to all participants during the event.
This competition is an ideal opportunity for university startups to connect with the international startup community and get some attention of startup investors from Europe.
You can find this year's program on the official website www.stup.efst.hr, and follow all activities and announcements via the Student Entrepreneurship Incubator’s social networks.