Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition (Global)

Website: http://www.smu.edu.sg/lky/2010/overview.asp
About: Participants will be able to showcase their business plans and entrepreneurial talents on a global stage, attract seed funding to further their business ambitions as well as extend their network of friends and business contacts through the Competition.
Participants: Participants must be undergraduate, college and polytechnic students from around the world
Award: Up to US$60,000 in cash, prizes and business development opportunities. Overseas finalists will receive 5 night hotel stay in Singapore for 2 core team members.
Application deadline: January 31, 2011

Breakthrough Innovation Grant (BIG) competition (Global)

Website: http://www.breakthroughinnovationgrant.com
About:the “Breakthrough Innovation Grant” (BIG) competition – the search for the most innovative business idea that can create prosperity in Metro Manila, Philippines.  The competition searches for SMEs as well as social entrepreneurs whose ideas can serve as drivers for poverty alleviation.  Proposals must be innovative, resourceful, scalable, and fit the particular needs of the Philippines to drive wealth creation. 
Participants: Participants from around the world aged 18 years or above
Award: Up to $20,000 USD seed money
Application deadline: March 15, 2011

Dell Social Innovation Challenge (Global)

Website: http://www.dellsocialinnovationcompetition.com
About:The Dell Social Innovation Competition operates like a business-plan competition, awarding seed funding directly to the student-led venture that best meets the judges’ criteria.The venture should exist primarily to address a significant social problem  and must be financially viable. 
Participants: Undergraduate and graduate level students from any university or college in the world
Award: Up to US$50,000 prize money
Application deadline: February 14, 2011

Global Entrepreneurship Challenge 2010 (Global)

Website: http://www.globalentrepreneurshipchallenge.com/
About: The Global Entrepreneurship Week and Kauffman Foundation has partnered with Studentcompetitions.com to organize a global competition for students, to celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship. The purpose of the competition is to reward a bright student and to raise awareness of the Global Entrepreneurship Week. The Global Entrepreneurship Challenge is also an ample opportunity for a student to get international recognition for his or her ideas.
Participants: Entrants can be students worldwide
Award: The first prize is a trip to Sweden and participation in the Goodmorning 2020 entrepreneurship conference, taking place in Stockholm on November 19. Goodmorning 2020 is Scandinavia’s largest entrepreneurship summit where roughly 600 entrepreneurs, investors, politicians and students gather to discuss how the world will look in future.
Application deadline: November 12, 2010 Intent to Compete

The William James Foundation Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition (Global)

Website: http://www.williamjamesfoundation.org/
About: The William James Foundation (WJF) seeks to identify, promote, and support entrepreneurs who have financially viable ways of integrating social and/or environmental sustainability into a for-profit business model. There is a processing fee of $50 to enter our competition.
Participants: Entrants can be of any age or from anywhere in the world.
Award: in-kind and cash prizes worth more than $100,000
Application deadline: December 3, 2010 Intent to Compete

Venture Challenge™ International MBA Business Plan Competition 2011 (Global)

Website: http://tinyurl.com/yl9b5qr
About: For more than 20 years, Venture Challenge has showcased next generation companies. This innovative international graduate business plan competition gives graduate students from around the world an opportunity to seek investment in their business ideas.
Participants: Teams competing in the Venture Challenge™ business plan competition must include at least one currently enrolled graduate student from the university being represented who will also be present at the competition.
Award: $25,000 in awards
Application deadline: November 19, 2010: Intent to Compete Entries Due

Breakthrough Innovation Grant Competition (Global)

Website: http://www.sevenfund.org/fbi/
About: This business concept competition is open to all who aspire to create prosperity in the Philippines through new and viable business ideas that can be offered through the Hapinoy sari-sari store network. Proposals must be innovative, resourceful, scalable, and fit the particular needs of the Philippines.
Participants: This competition is open to all participants globally. Entries may be from an individual 18 years and above, a team of up to two people (all of whom 18 years and above), or a registered entity.
Award: Total cash awards of PhP 250,000
Application deadline: November 5, 2010

Wantrapreneur (India)

Website: http://www.villgro.org/wantrapreneur/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21:application-options
About: The idea behind Wantrapreneur is to identify talent who can think of ways and means to imagine practical innovations in the domains of energy, dairy, water and agriculture.
Participants: Wantrapreneur is open to any Indian citizens aged 18 years as on October 15, 2010.  The minimum requirement for an applicant is that he must have a functioning business in its start up or early growth stage focussed on agriculture, energy, diary and water sectors.
Award: Winners will get a cash award of Rs. 12 lakhs at the Villgro Awards Show to held in Chennai.
Application deadline: November 1, 2010

Global Social Venture Competition (China)

Website: http://www.gsvcchina.org/
About: The Global Social Venture Competition is  the largest and oldest student-led business plan competition and jointly held by top business schools in the world, providing mentoring, exposure, and prizes for social ventures from around the world. The GSVC awards prizes to the business plans that show the highest, most integrated financial and social returns (i.e. blended value), as well as an award for Social Impact Assessment (SIA).
Participants: Each entrant team must include a graduate business student from any business school in the world or an individual who has graduated from a graduate business program within the past two years. Teams are strongly encouraged to include seasoned entrepreneurs and professionals with relevant skills and experience.
Award: TBC
Application deadline: November 1, 2010

Staples Youth Social Entrepreneurship Competition (Global)

Website: http://www.genv.net/en-us/staples-yse/rules
About: The Youth Social Entrepreneurship Competition will search until September for eight outstanding youth changemakers; leaders of social ventures aged 12 to 24 who make a difference in the world. Youths can either nominate themselves or be nominated by someone inspired by their actions.
Participants: open to all youth who are: between the ages of 12 and 24, are operating a youth-led social venture whith demonstrated impact and who are able to travel to Washington, D.C. to attend and present at TEDxYSE from November 12 to 13, 2010.
Award: Up to two members from each of the eight winning teams will be invited to Washington, D.C. to present at the TEDxYSE event on November 13, 2010. Grand prize of $5,000.
Application deadline: Winners will be selected on a rolling basis until all eight spots are filled. (The sooner you enter, the better your chances.)

Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (Global)

Website: http://bit.ly/fevX4
About: The Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (GSEC) is a leading-edge international social venture plan competition, where interdisciplinary student teams from around the world propose creative, commercially viable businesses aimed at reducing poverty in the developing world. To compete in GSEC, student teams need to create an innovative social business plan that seeks to alleviate a problem(s) of poverty in developing economies.
Participants: GSEC is open to currently enrolled students at any academic institution of higher education worldwide.
Award: At least US$30,000 in prize money
Application deadline: November 04, 2010

The Great Power Race (US, India, China)

Website: http://www.greatpowerrace.org/
About: The Great Power Race is a clean energy competition between students in China, India, and the United States. The aim is to kick-start hundreds of new climate solution projects on campuses and in communities in all three countries and to demonstrate to governments and businesses our generation's leadership in transforming our world towards a green economy.
Participants: Open for any students in the US, India and China
Award: N/A
Application deadline: N/A

Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition (The QEC) (Global)

Website: http://www.theqec.com
About: The QEC is the foremost international undergraduate business plan competition in Canada, organised entirely by students.
Participants: Open for undergraduate students from all faculties
Award: $25,000 in cash prizes
Application deadline: 5th November 2010

Oxford University 21st Century Challenge (Global)

Website: http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/CENTRES/ENTREPRENEURSHIP/PROGRAMMES/Pages/21stCenturyChallenge.aspx
About: The Oxford University 21st Century Challenge is an international entrepreneurship competition for bold and innovative business ideas that can help to solve some of the key challenges of the 21st Century.
Participants: Entries are accepted from individuals, teams, new companies, existing companies creating spin-offs, students, scientists, academics and entrepreneurs. Regional, national and international participation is encouraged.
Award: N/A
Application deadline: 2010 deadline TBD

Ignite Clean Energy program (Global)

Website: http://www.ignitecleanenergy.com
About: The Ignite Clean Energy (ICE) business plan competition, based in Boston, Massachusetts, is a year long training and competitive forum for entrepreneurs in the clean energy industry.
Participants: An entrant’s business must support a technology, product, or service in the clean energy field and each student team must be comprised of at least two-thirds students.
Award: Cash prizes along with in-kind services such as legal advice, office or incubator space, publicity and marketing, etc.
Application deadline: 2010 deadline TBD

‘I Am an Entrepreneur’ photography competition (Global)

Website: http://www.sevenfund.org/entrepreneur-image/
About: This competition recognizes the outstanding use of photography to tell compelling stories of role model entrepreneurs from around the world.The objective with this competition is to gather stunning photographs profiling individual entrepreneurs from around the globe.
Participants: Anyone is welcome to participate in this competition.
Award: The competition will award twelve (12) prizes, one per month, over a period of one year. Each month, one finalist will be selected and will receive a prize of $100. The grand prize winner (selected from among the 12 finalist photographs) will receive $1,000 at the end of the year.
Application deadline: Rolling deadline every month

Venture Capital Investment competition (Global)

Website: http://www.vcic.unc.edu/
About: Now in its 11th year, VCIC® has evolved into a marketplace for entrepreneurs seeking investors and a training ground for future venture capitalists. Unlike business plan competitions in which students pitch their own ideas to investors, at VCIC the students are the investors, and real entrepreneurs pitch to them. It is a very powerful learning experience for both parties.
Participants: Open for graduate students from CEIBS, CKGSB, Nanyang, NUS, IIMB, ISB
Award: Investment from participating investors
Application deadline: Rolling deadline

Any competition missing? Email us the details at hello(at)fyse(dot)org

Currently closed Competitions

New Venture Championship (Global)

Website: http://www.oregonnvc.com
About: Presented by the University of Oregon’s Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE), the first NVC was held in 1992 in a classroom at the University of Oregon. A result of its intense academic focus and guaranteed interaction with multiple panels of judges in a professional format, NVC is an unmatched experience for any start-up venture team.
Participants: This is a competition for graduate students, and at least one graduate student must be a member of the venture’s startup management team. This competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed, start‐up, or early
growth stages.
Award: $60,000 in cash prizes
Application deadline: February 2011

Asia Moot Corp 2010

Website: http://www.asiamootcorp.org/
About: The competition is for student created, managed, and owned ventures. The competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed, start‐up, or early growth stages.
Participants: The competition is for students enrolled in the current academic year and at least one graduate student must be a member of the venture's startup management team.
Award: Prizes of US$ 7,500 and eligibility to compete at the Global Moot Corp® 2010 competition at the University of Texas at Austinwith up to US$25,000 in total cash prizes.
Application deadline: January 2011

McGinnis Venture Competition (Global)

Website: http://mcginnisventurecompetition.com/AboutUs.html
About: This competition revolves around new technologies. The driving force is pragmatism: helping MBA students move from the dorm room to the board room, bringing new businesses in emerging industries such as ICT, biotechnology, robotics and nanotechnology to life. The business plan must be for a seed, start-up or early stage venture and must address the entire business concept (including implementation). The competition features three tracks: Technology, Life Science and CleanTech
Participants: MBA students
Award: Opportunity to present before venture capitalists, Cash awards (first prize of $20,000) and in-kind prizes for intellectual property and other legal services
Application deadline: February 2011

Rice University Business Plan Competition (Global)

Website: http://www.alliance.rice.edu/alliance/RBPC.asp?SnID=231195864
About: All ventures must be “for profit” entities seeking outside equity capital. The goal of the RBPC is to provide the best overall educational and entrepreneurial experience of any business plan/new venture competition
Participants: Full- and part-time graduate students, not just MBA candidates, enrolled in a university during the academic year 2009-2010. At least one graduate student in the team.
Award: $800,000 in Cash and Prizes
Application deadline: February 2011

ISB iDiya (India)

Website: http://www.isb.edu/iDiya/
About: ISB iDiya Challenge has been conceptualised to encourage the social entrepreneurship paradigm amongst youth in India. It endeavours to bring together entrepreneurs, mentors and investors to help create sustainable and scalable businesses that have a positive social impact.
Participants: The challenge is aimed at working professionals in India. Teams of 2 to 4 individuals can participate. No team member must be currently enrolled in an educational institution pursuing a full-time program.
Award: A one-week all expenses paid BootCamp for the top six teams where you will meet industry leaders, venture capitalists and business mentors + mentoring support after the competition. Top 20 ideas will be showcased on the iDiya website. Cash rewards : Winner – Rs. 100,000, Runners-up – Rs. 50,000, 2nd Runners-up – Rs. 20,000, 4th,5th,6th – Rs. 10,000 each
Application deadline: September 19, 2010

Verizon - Social Entrepreneurship Competition (India)

Website: http://www.techfest.org/initiatives/prayaas/verizon/
About: VeriZon is a competition for social entrepreneurship, inviting solutions for some existing problems that can bring about a social change. Ideas for change which may range from for-profit businesses with a strong social responsibility to non-profit models with sustainable revenue generation.
Participants: Open for any students in the US, India and China
Award: Prizes worth INR 1,00,000
Application deadline: August 25th, 2010

William James Foundation Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition (Global)

Website: www.williamjamesfoundation.org
About: The William James Foundation supports entrepreneurs who are starting for-profit businesses with defined social and/or environmental goals. Competitions have three rounds: Executive Summary, Full Plan, and Public Presentation.
Participants: The business must either not have started yet, or be in start-up phase.
Award: The cash and in-kind prizes as a whole are worth more than $100,000
Application deadline: June 2010

Youth Business Development (Global)

Website: http://Youthbusdev.org
About: YBD is a global competition for young entrepreneurs. The competition kicks off with students assembling a core team, identifying an opportunity and submitting a brief write-up of their proposal. The most promising ideas & teams are then paired with Oxford MBA students who jointly develop the ideas into real business plans, submitted for the opportunity to win funding.
Participants: Students between 16-25 are to form groups of 3-5
Award: N/A
Application deadline: Aprl 2011