1499222022 L R Patron of GEM Tan Sri Irwan Serigar President of GEM Dash Dhakshinamoorthy with GEM ChampionsGlobal Entrepreneurship Movement (GEM) is calling all entrepreneurs, startups, and innovators to participate in its first global entrepreneurship competition, ColossusINNO2017, where one winner will be awarded with a grand prize of USD 100,000.

Recently launched in June 2017, this competition was created by GEM, a non-government, not-for-profit organization, in order to recognize entrepreneurs with world class innovations that will help transform ASEAN’s socio-economic community. ColussusINNO2017 competition kicks off in anticipation to help aspiring entrepreneurs develop innovative ideas into global businesses to create positive societal change in ASEAN

GEM’s mission and purpose is to democratize entrepreneurship – to create zero barriers for aspiring entrepreneurs to spurn new enterprises, to be easily educated in the field of entrepreneurship and to connect the Malaysian and the ASEAN entrepreneurship ecosystem to other global ecosystems. The aim is to make innovation and entrepreneurship ubiquitous.

In line with GEM’s mission, ColossusINNO2017 was incepted to inspire breakthrough thinking among entrepreneurs to identify and build ventures that will result in providing solutions to solve regional problems in developing countries in ASEAN – be it the problem of poverty, governance, education, health or environment.

According to GEM’s patron Tan Sri Irwan Serigar, “It is a known fact that there is no lack of innovation in the ASEAN region, as the entrepreneurial ecosystem has evolved tremendously over the years. What we need now is greater confidence amongst our entrepreneurs to think big, take on bigger challenges and direct their imagination on innovating in ASIA for ASIA. Thus, the creation of ColossusINNO2017 – as the name suggests, we want the ideas to be ‘born global.”

Tan Sri Irwan added that ColossusINNO2017 is on the lookout for the next big solutions that help address the market gaps, which in turn will propel ASEAN nations closer towards first world status – such as innovation in the areas of governance, poverty eradication, education, health, environment and cleanliness. Furthermore, the timing for ColossusINNO2017 is just right as it is also the time where Malaysia celebrates the year of startup, and this global competition is one of the programs organized by GEM under Startup and SME Promotion Year (SSPY 2017).

President of GEM, Dash Dhakshinamoorthy also shared his enthusiasm for ColossusINNO2017 and was confident that it will attract top notch startups and ecosystem players from around the world.

“We are positive that a global competition of this scale and stature will attract the support from top notch ecosystem players – such as accelerators and early stage funders. And with its global support network, GEM aims to attract regional and global startups to launch their ventures in Malaysia through ColossusINNO2017, in hopes of garnering more interest from the international funding community and support network,” commented Dash.

He also added that ColossusINNO2017 is working closely with a Silicon-Valley-based competition platform, You Noodle, to be its competition engine – to call for submissions, shortlist and select winners. The platform will also help engage with the judges to make the selection independently based on the parameters set together with global requirements. The panel of judges consists of world-class industry leaders and experts, including Director of Global Education at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., Sam Potolicchio, Advisor to the Vice President for the MENA Region at World Bank in Washington D.C., Olivier Lavinal, and Director and Leader of Digital Transformation at Cisco in India, Lux Rao.

This process of judging is to ensure that the winners meet the global standards in terms of knowledge, solution to problems and other requirements of a scalable startup.

The ColussusINNO2017 competition will occur in several stages. Submissions will be opened to challengers from across the world from June 21 to end of October, followed by the announcement of the top ten finalists in November. These finalists will be then invited to present their winning stories to ASEAN and global entrepreneurs, policymakers, industry leaders, investors and other startup community participants at the Global Entrepreneurship Community 2017 (GECommunity 2017). This will also give them an opportunity to connect on a global level via specially-curated programs, designed to build strategic linkages and drive real change.

ColossusINNO2017 is a collaborative effort by GEM and its partners – Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC), The group will announce the winner and hand over a cash fund prize worth USD 100,000 at the GECommunity 2017 on December 5 and 6 2017.  Subsequently, the winner will be exposed to a variety of mentorship, resources and skills to aid the growth of the idea, amongst which collaboration with the local government and corporations will be made possible in aiding a stronger market entry.

By MediaBUZZ