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The fourth edition of STup! international university startup competition will once again make Split the global stage of university entrepreneurship! 😀
Following its fundamental postulates – encouraging entrepreneurial awareness and skills among young people, the Student Business Incubator of the Faculty of Economics in Split organizes the international university startup competition STup! as part of the University Green Digital HUB project and with the support of the City of Split, the European Universities of the Seas Alliance (SEA-EU), the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) and the Tourist Board of the City of Split.
This year, the competition will be held on June 30th and July 1st at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Split.
The event aims to enable competitors and visitors to connect with each other, improve entrepreneurial culture among students, and exchange ideas and experiences on an international level. In the two days of this year’s event, the city of Split will be the stage for innovations, new technologies, and bright ideas, with which university projects will try to secure the attention of renowned experts, potential clients, and investors.
STup! competition will bring together local and international startups, entrepreneurs, representatives of incubators, accelerators, as well as companies and investors, so in addition to competitors, programs for young innovators and startups will also be presented.
The 30 selected startups representing 17 universities from over 10 countries around the world will be taking part in this year’s STup! competition!
The teams are representing the following universities: the University of Split, the University of Zagreb and Aspira College (Croatia), the University of Sigmaringen, Hochschule der Medien and Kiel University (Germany), Azerbaijan State University of Economics (Azerbaijan), the University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg), the University of Sousse (Tunisia), Tampere University (Finland), HAN University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), the University of Malta (Malta), the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Organizational Sciences (Serbia), the University of Malaga and the University of Cadiz (Spain), the University of Brest (France).
University startups will compete according to the following categories:
Jury members and speakers are experts from the world of entrepreneurship and investment management, and they come from numerous countries: Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Poland, and Croatia.
This year’s STup! boasts the following jury panel:
In addition to the competitive part of the program where presentations will be delivered by the selected startup teams, four lectures will also be held. On the first day of STup! we will have the opportunity to hear Alexander Bernhard’s talk “How to be an Impact(Social) Entrepreneur” and Ivan Palvov’s “Capacity2Transform“, while on the second day, the lecture will be held by Catherine Ogilvie on the topic “Story, Brand, and Messaging: How to Tell your Company Story” and Rafael Ventura Fernandez will deliver the talk titled “What would Maslow say to the startup CEO?“.
The best team will take the title “Best University Startup 2023” and ensure numerous awards.
The main prize is provided by Infobip, a global IT and telecommunications company, namely €7,500.00 for the winner for the use of Infobip’s communication technology, €5,000.00 for the second place, €2,500.00 for the third place. The first three teams will also be awarded with tickets to the Shift conference.
In addition to the Infobip awards, the best startup will also be awarded a place in the Silicon Castles accelerator program. Also, the first three startups ensure participation and exposure at Wolves Summit 2024. Wolves Summit is the largest entrepreneurial conference in Central and Eastern Europe that brings together over 2,000 startup companies looking for investment and investors from all over the world.
All participants of this year’s competition will receive three free months of using the QuilBot tool, and the first three places will each receive $5,000 in credits from the SendPulse platform.
In addition to the valuable prizes, it is worth noting that the organization was also supported by the company Dalmacijavino, which provided drinks for the participants, and the company Promet Split, which provided all participants with free public transportation rides during the event.
This year’s STup! competition is also part of the University Green Digital Hub project.
The program of the University Green Digital HUB project aims to strengthen initiatives and skills directed at innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development among students. In addition, all University Green Digital HUB program activities encourage the participation of young people in the community encouraging them to act as active citizens and promoting the development of green-oriented student entrepreneurial ideas.
The main goal of the University Green Digital HUB project is to strengthen the digital, green, and entrepreneurial skills of students, university startups, and university employees, as well as to improve the capacity of higher education institutions in the field of teaching for the digital and green transition.
The overall duration of the University Green Digital HUB project is 24 months, and it is co-financed with funds from the Erasmus+ program – Key Activity 2: Partnerships for cooperation for the field of higher education.
And, as any other year so far, STup! remains a competition with an ideal opportunity for university startups to connect with the international startup community and get noticed by startup investors from Europe. We invite you all to check out this year’s event program on the STup! official website and follow all competition-related activities and announcements via their social networks.
Let’s celebrate university entrepreneurship together! 😀
Text and photos: Student Business Incubator
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