Qualcomm Ventures, a leader in developing and delivering innovative digital wireless communications products and services based on CDMA and other advanced technologies, has launched a global business plan competition to promote innovation in the wireless industry.
"Many of tomorrow's great technology innovations are being developed by small companies, entrepreneurs and university students," said Nagraj Kashyap, vice president of Qualcomm Ventures. "This competition is designed to provide initial financial support to help bring their ideas into the market."
The QPrize competition will provide $550,000 in total seed funding to help entrepreneurs transform their innovative business plans into reality. It is open to entrepreneurs in India, North America, Europe and China whose business plans accelerate wireless technology development in the following business sectors:
a.. Consumer/enterprise applications and services
b.. Communication devices
c.. Semiconductor and component technologies
d.. Mobile platforms
e.. Digital media and content
f.. Healthcare technologies and services
g.. CleanTech
The deadline for submitting the completed business plans is July 31. Notifications will be sent to all semi-finalists by August 28. The India region will be chosen in September.
Each regional winner will receive $100,000 of convertible note funding.
The four regional winners will compete against each other for a grand prize of an additional $150,000 of convertible note funding.
The deadline for submitting revised business plans for the final competition is October 16. The finals will be held in San Diego in November.
"Qualcomm continues to make R&D investments in India and, through Qualcomm Ventures, provides early-stage funding to innovative Indian start-ups in the wireless space," said Kanwalinder Singh, senior vice president of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm India and South Asia.
"QPrize is an additional initiative to identify and strengthen novel business ideas while in the concept stage. We look forward to spirited participation from Indian entrepreneurs and hope to move their ideas towards commercial reality by extending initial mentoring and financial support."
Additional details on the Qualcomm Ventures' QPrize competition, candidate eligibility and submission guidelines are available at www.qprize2009.com.