Eight Teams to Compete for $75,000 in the 2021 Global New Venture Challenge Finals

The Global New Venture Challenge final, April 11, 2019 at the Gleacher Center.(Photo by Jean Lachat)

The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is pleased to announce the eight teams selected to compete in the finals of the Global New Venture Challenge (GNVC), a startup competition for students enrolled in Chicago Booth’s Executive MBA program.

The GNVC, now in its 14^th year, operates on Booth’s three campuses — Chicago, London and Hong Kong — each of which holds a semifinals event before the global finals. Finalist teams will vie for a portion of a $75,000 investment pool at a virtual business plan competition to be held June 10.

Nineteen teams were accepted into this year’s GNVC, which includes an intensive week of class and one-on-one coaching sessions with mentors from across the globe before the regional semifinals. The class is taught by Waverly Deutsch, clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Booth and director of the University of Chicago Global Entrepreneurs Network at the Polsky Center.

“I am always astonished by the diversity of business models our EMBA students are working on,” Deutsch said. “This year we had  teams bringing AI and sensor technology to shrimp farming in India, innovation to the welding industry, and a tasty chocolate energy gummy to market in addition to our eight great finalists. Viewers of the GNVC finals this year will be see an incredible array of compelling companies.”

The eight teams advancing to the GNVC finals are:

Chicago campus:

Hong Kong campus:

London campus:

The GNVC is one of five tracks of the New Venture Challenge, which this year marks its 25^th anniversary. It is a condensed version of the traditional track of the program, the Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge, which is for Booth MBAs and other UChicago grad students and spans the academic year.

Register here to attend the GNVC finals, which is free and open to the public. Learn more about the GNVC here.