Challenge Cup 2015 comes to Dublin

By @SimonCocking

Global startup community leaders are partnering to identify Ireland’s most promising startups as part of global competition

1776 @1776,  and NDRC @NDRC_hq  are partnering to host Challenge Cup 2015, a global competition that spans 16 cities in 11 countries to identify the most promising startups with the best ideas to solve the world’s biggest challenges, in Dublin on February 27.

The Dublin competition, which underscores the city’s reputation as a hub for innovation, will feature Ireland’s most compelling startups in four categories—Education, Energy & Sustainability, Health and Transportation & Cities—competing for the chance to join other leading startups from around the world at 1776’s annual Challenge Festival in Washington, D.C. in May.

The weeklong Challenge Festival will convene the top 64 startups from the 16 regional Challenge Cup competitions (four startups from each region) to compete for $650,000 in prizes and connect with mentors, corporate partners, policymakers, and potential investors.

In addition to Dublin, Challenge Cup 2015 takes place at 15 other regional sites, including Washington D.C., Chicago, Toronto, Sydney, New York City, Tel Aviv, Amman, Beijing, Nairobi, Bangalore, Austin, Mexico City, Boston, Berlin, and San Francisco.

Candidates for the Challenge Cup competition are startups that are compelling, world changing, and highly scalable, and that aim to make tangible differences in people’s lives, not just build the hottest new app. Through Challenge Cup, entrepreneurs are not only connected to the investors and mentors they need to succeed, but corporations and policymakers in some of the world’s most entrenched industries and government entities are introduced to these innovators’ fresh ideas that have the potential to solve big, difficult challenges.

What: Dublin Challenge Cup Competition
When: Friday, February 27, 5:30 p.m.
Where: NDRC, Digital Exchange Building, Crane St, Dublin, Ireland
The Judges are:

• Evan Burfield, 1776
• Ben Hurley, NDRC
• Chris Locke, Pearson
• Ronan King,Amethyst Capital
• Aideen O’Hora, The Green Way
• Michael Culligan, Dublin BIC
• Derek Young, i360Medical

ABOUT 1776

1776 is a global incubator and seed fund that finds promising startups focused on solving the world’s most fundamental challenges and helps engineer their success.

Just two years old, 1776 has helped more than 250 startups grow by vetting their viability and connecting them to a “swat team” of support, from investors to mentors, government officials, and institutional market partners that they need to succeed.

1776 focuses on startups in the most broken, entrenched industries and sectors that impact millions of lives every day—specifically education, energy & sustainability, transportation, and cities.

Because solving big challenges in entrenched industries requires a different approach, 1776 is revolutionizing the startup landscape. From its hub in Washington, D.C., it is sparking a global movement of “problem-solving’ startups through its Challenge Cup and Startup Federation, the premiere network of incubators throughout the world.

By creating a global community of startups, mentors, partners, and investors, 1776 is proving that its unique approach to incubation can create a sustained cycle of innovation that connects existing enterprises, corporations, and government entities to the startups that are solving the world’s biggest problems.

1776 was founded in February 2013 by Donna Harris, a serial entrepreneur and the former Managing Director of the Startup America Partnership, and Evan Burfield, founder of netDecide, a provider of enterprise wealth management solutions, and the consulting firm Synteractive.