INSEAD Venture Competition - INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship

Empowering entrepreneurs to build new businesses

The INSEAD Venture Competition (IVC) is the flagship entrepreneurship experience for all current degree programme participants. This twice a year event represents a natural and exciting step in the development of INSEAD entrepreneurial students’ ventures, allowing them to pitch their start-up concept and business model. Throughout the multi-stage competition, students are immersed in a supportive yet rigorous environment to develop and showcase their venture ideas. Through extensive coaching and feedback from seasoned entrepreneurs and investors, participants gain valuable knowledge and experience on how to launch a start-up.

The IVC is a rigourous three stage competition which culminates with the top six teams pitching to a panel of judges for seed funding and various prizes. Judges will use a scoresheet with elements found under the IVC Criteria as a guide for judging each entry.

Note:

• Mentoring and practice pitches will be organised for teams proceeding to the Semifinals and Final rounds of the competition. Teams which do not advance to the next round may request for a mentor/advisor to continue developing with their venture idea.
• Videos of finalist presentations are made available after each competition. Documents and materials may be referenced in INSEAD degree programme courses and as examples for future IVC participants.

Throughout all three stages, judges will be provided with a scoresheet based on the elements below as a guide to evaluate the team's venture summary, business plan or pitch. Cash prizes awarded to teams, in the judges' opinion, offer the best combination of business potential, credible founder(s), and likelihood of successful implementation.

Summary & Venture plan requirement

• First round - Structure of Venture Summary: clarity and quality of writing; structure and sequence of ideas; the document reads well
• Semi finals & Final - Presentation & Structure of Plan: clarity and quality of writing; structure and sequence of ideas; presentation slides; Verbal presentation/Q&A

The judges will determine the winners using a combination of raw scores, rankings and any other means that they deem appropriate at the time. Feedback is encouraged and given to teams throughout the various stages. Such feedback may or may not fully represent all factors considered by the judging panel when determining the winners of any prize.

Our distinguished supporters

We are indebted to our generous INSEAD alumni, friends and partners for their gifts and time to support the IVC.

• Rudolf Maag MBA'73
• Ben Ling GEMBA’16A
• All alumni and friends of INSEAD who donated to the Patrick Turner MBA’78 Memorial Fund
• Ben Blomerley MBA'11J and MOHARA
• National Alumni Association UK Entrepreneurs Group Business Angels
• Freshworks
• Loyal.vc
• Angel Club @ IAAG (INSEAD Alumni Association in Germany)

Frequently asked questions

Can I participate if I am not an INSEAD student?
The IVC is an internal competition mainly for current INSEAD students. The objective is to help them accelerate an idea during their course of study and subsequently create a new venture upon graduation.

Is there a minimum or maximum number of team members allowed on a venture’s team?
Teams may have a minimum of 1 and maximum of 6 members. Involvement of external members from outside INSEAD degree programme is allowed up to maximum of 2 members.

I am an exchange student at INSEAD but would like to take part. Can I participate in the IVC?
The competition is open to current students of the INSEAD degree programme. As an exchange student, you may ask to join in a current student’s team but will not be allowed to pitch during the semifinals or final round.

Can I participate in multiple teams?
Each person can only participate in the submission of one team to the IVC. Being a member in multiple teams is not allowed.  However, if your venture does not advance past the first round, you may join a semifinals team if you are asked.

If I register to participate, may I withdraw from the competition later on? At what point am I fully committed to the competition?
If you should wish to withdraw at any point, please inform us immediately.

Do you only accept a 4-page venture summary at the first stage or will a first version of the business plan be acceptable? What criteria will the judges use to evaluate my submission?
The first stage of the competition requires teams to submit only the 4-page (A4-sized) venture summary. Judges will evaluate these summaries based on a set of elements provided in a score sheet. You may find the general guide under Judges & Criteria.

Are participants allowed to participate after graduation?
INSEAD alumni are allowed to participate as part of an existing student’s team. They will not be allowed to pitch to judges but can participate during the Q&A.

Are there any sample copy or specifications from past venture summary or business plans? Must the documents be submitted in word document or if detailed power power slides would be appropriate?
No sample copies are available from previous submissions. All teams’ ideas and plans are confidential information. No specific size or margin so long as the information fits the maximum of 4-page for venture summary and 15-pages for plan, inclusive of exhibits and appendices.

I am working on developing an idea with an external company, founders of whom are not INSEAD students. If I am playing an active role in the development of the business, am I able to apply?
You are eligible to participate as long as your business idea is less than a year from the point when the "Call for Entry" is announced. Your team members can be external partners or non-INSEAD participants but they will not be allowed to pitch to judges during the semifinals and final round of the competition.

I had already participated in the previous competition with no success. Can I participate again with the same project?
If your venture did not win a prize in any of the previous IVCs, you are eligible to apply again with the same project.

I have a reasonably mature business idea that I would like to present for the competition. Can I register my business idea if my company is not yet incorporated?
The IVC is restricted to new ventures. As long as you have not yet incorporated the business, you are eligible to register for the competition

Is the company’s incorporation a requisite at present time or only in the case when the venture is awarded a monetary prize?
The criterion to incorporate the company within 6 months only applies to award winners after the competition.

We are in the midst of recruitment, assignments and classes. Is it possible to extend the IVC summary/plan submission past the deadline?
The competition is intense and all deadlines are fixed. No exceptions to the deadlines will be made.

Are there any specifications for the documents of the venture summary and business plans (font size, margins and spacing)? Should it be a Word or PowerPoint file?
So long as the font size is no smaller than 10 and it fits into the maximum 4 pages (1st round venture summary) or 15 pages (semifinals and final business plan), inclusive of exhibits and appendices, there is no set format on how you should present your plan.  We encourage you to be creative and make the business plans easy and engaging to read. All documents must be in A4 size paper.

Is there a dress code for the presentation?
There is no particular dress code but our suggestion is to dress smart since you are presenting to panel of judges/and or audience who may be your potential investor.

We are part of the IVC team and although very interested with all the projects, we were just wondering whether if it would be possible to attend at a specific time so as not to miss our class.
It is fine for you or any of your fellow classmates to drop in any time whilst the competition is ongoing. We do understand that your classes take priority. However please be mindful when entering the Amphi or Auditorium, especially when a team is presenting, to avoid loud noise and minimise disruption. 

Internal Support

Our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) volunteer their time on campus and online to share their expertise and provide students with direct feedback on entrepreneurial topics in all stages of the entrepreneurship journey. We currently have over 160 entrepreneurs who cover a wide range of domains and industries. Have a one-on-one conversation with them to get advice on your startup and learn about what it is like living an entrepreneurial life.

Quote: “Point of view of people who have been through the process of starting up ventures, being in the position of running and growing a small company. Sincere feedback on improvement areas. Genuine interest in our project and networking opportunities.”

The Rudolf & Valeria Maag INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship organises the bi-yearly venture competition to help students accelerate their idea during the course of their study. We also offer a variety of other programmes, activities and resources for those who are interested in pursuing entrepreneurship. Do keep in touch and stay connected with us on our LinkedIn group!

Alumni Support

INSEADAlum Ventures Pte Ltd (“IAV”) is a investment company focused on providing seed funding, value-added resources and mentorship to selected INSEAD alumni who are becoming entrepreneurs after graduation. IAV is founded by two INSEAD Alumni with successful track records as entrepreneurs and investors; Deepak Shahdadpuri (MBA‘98D) and William Klippgen (MBA‘03D). IAV will invest from SGD $50k to $200k in each start-up and will help develop the start-ups to a point where they easily can raise further seed or Series A funding.

INSEAD Angels (Asia), an alumni investment club, provides early-stage seed minority investment to high-calibrate start-ups where the founder or co-founder is an INSEAD alum. The club encompasses alumni with diversity of thought and experience. They balance their vision on three pillars: i) funding and mentoring for the entrepreneurs, ii) returns for the investors, and iii) contributing portion of the returns to INSEAD.

IVC Support

Freshworks is one of the fastest-growing unicorns backed by Google Capital, Accel, Sequoia, Tiger Global with $400M funding, valued at $3.5Bn+. They're a leading maker of the cloud-based customer and employee engagement software based in San Mateo, California. INSEAD startups get up to $4000 in credits on the Freshworks suite of products! Boost your startup journey with leading customer and employee engagement solutions from Freshworks including CRM, LiveChat, Support, Marketing automation, Project Management, and HRMS.    Priority access to Freshworks startup program including, events, resources, workshops, and much more.  Check out an introduction video here.  

Map of Money is a platform to connect amazing entrepreneurs to great investors with a focus on Southeast Asia.

MOHARA is a global product, technology and venture development specialist who partner with startups and corporates, with offices based in London (HQ), Brighton, Bangkok, Cape Town and Dallas. New and existing businesses make the same innovation mistakes every day - technology is the end game, not the starting point. Without laying the right foundations to truly innovate, businesses expose themselves to problems like poor product-market fit, little return on investment and negative perceptions of innovation. MOHARA has a proven process to help you create, launch and scale innovative technology products.

Tin Men Capital is a Singapore-based venture capital firm and with focus in enterprise technology segments with large and growing Total Addressable Markets (TAM) in Southeast Asia. As an INSEAD EIR, Murli Ravi, co-founder of Tin Men Capital, would like to share some chats he had with successful entrepreneurs from SE Asia on channels like Podcasts etc.

For more entrepreneurship advices and useful websites, including competitions, events and podcasts, have a look at our Resources page. 

Past IVC finalist videos