Please note that the Columbia Venture Competition 2022 is no longer accepting new participants.
Now in its eighth year, the Columbia Venture Competition 2022 is underway!
This year, $350K in prize money will be given out to Columbia entrepreneurs who are working on solutions to tomorrow’s problems, today.
There’s more information at StartupColumbia.org – please check that site out for eligibility and timeline information, made available when you click on the name of the challenge you are interested in – but here’s a run down of the tracks that are still accepting applications and the deadlines for participating:
BlocPower Columbia Climate Challenge – Deadline, February 18
This year’s applicants to the Columbia Climate Challenge should be pursuing tech-based solutions for global impact on the future of climate change.
Judging criteria will include rewarding teams who are able to provide empirical evidence that:
- The venture is financially viable
- The solution is practically deployable
- The impact can be accurately measured
- The value proposition is compelling to customers and investors
- The solution actually works as intended
Teams do not have to be incorporated or legally formed to compete or win, but winning teams will need to incorporate before receiving prize money.
StartupColumbia Challenge – Deadline, February 17
The StartupColumbia Challenge is the largest of the six challenges and covers all categories of business models and industries. We’ll take not-for-profit, for-profit, and anything in between. We’ll take a look at Food or Fashion, Medical Devices or Healthcare Delivery solutions, widget models or service offerings, fledgling or pre-IPO ventures. Bring it on!
Judges looked for documented proof — not unproven assumptions — of each venture’s potential long-term viability. This proof came in the form of qualitative and quantitative market surveys, customer development interview summaries, current customer-acquisition metrics, revenue, and/or unit shipment counts.
Columbia Venture Competition Technology Challenge – Deadline, February 17
Columbia Engineering provides funding in the Technology Challenge to students and teams focused in tech, innovation, products, etc.
All entries to the Technology Challenge must include business models based on a solid foundation of applied, solution-focused, technology innovation. Judges favored novel tech over novel applications of existing tech. Submissions had to focus on product development, innovative design, and “builder” technologies including data analytics, biomedical solutions, software, or hardware. As always, cross-disciplinary teams were strongly encouraged.
The Tech Challenge is open to all Columbia University students and recent alumni (five years or less from their most recent degree) but teams must have one SEAS founding member (either recent alumni or student).
Brown Institute Innovation Challenge in Journalism, Media, and Technology – Deadline, February 25
This Challenges encourages new tech-based or tech-enabled forms of media — these might make novel uses of computer vision, AI, NLP, ML, data visualization or even VR/AR to create, communicate, and interpret content. An information session will be held on February 7.
Judging criteria will include rewarding teams who are able to provide empirical evidence that:
- The venture is financially viable
- The solution is practically deployable
- The impact can be accurately measured
- The value proposition is compelling to the audience/users/customers and funders/investors
- Teams do not have to be incorporated or legally formed to compete or win, but winning teams will need to incorporate — as a for-profit or not-for-profit — before receiving prize money.