Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam (middle) hosted a panel at Techfest Vietnam in November 2018. This year, the event will take place in California, the US, aiming to attract resources for Việt Nam’s start-ups. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Nine best start-up finalists will present their ideas at the Grand Finale of the forth VietChallenge 2019 on Saturday at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.

The global start-up competition for Vietnamese innovators all over the world takes place under the framework of the Prime Minister of Government's Decision No.844 on “supporting innovative start-up ecosystem in Việt Nam until 2025” coordinated by Ministry of Science and Technology.

This year, besides the final round, participants have also attended a boot camp to sharpen presentation skills, meet experts and international investors.

With US$50,000 to be awarded in total, the champion and runner-up will receive $25,000 and $5,000, respectively.  

The competition is linked with the national start-up day, Techfest Vietnam 2019, in the US.

The two events aim to attract resources and create a networking platform for start-ups, overseas Vietnamese communities, investors, corporations and supporting organisations to promote domestic and foreign business, enhance and connect Việt Nam’s start-up ecosystem with the world.

After the VietChallenge at MIT, Techfest Vietnam’s delegation will have working visits to the US’s leading university of Tuft, UMass and Stanford and big tech corporations of Amazon, Google and Facebook.

Representatives of MST will discuss with financial partners including Tim Draper, Republic, 500 Start-ups and AI20X on accelerating the establishment of Việt Nam’s start-up ecosystem right in the US.

Techfest Vietnam in the USA will be launched on September 13 (local time) at Hero City, 55 East, 3rd Avenue, San Mateo – the common hub of some 300 Vietnamese intellectuals as well as Silicon Valley’s investors and experts.  

More than ten excellent start-ups from Việt Nam including Abivin – the 2019 Startup World Cup champion – will pitch their ideas and projects at the event.

To attend Techfest Vietnam log on to https://techfest.vn/en/register-form. — VNS