Fifty teams from across the globe have been accepted into the semi final round of the Diamond Challenge.
Created in 2012 by University of Delaware Horn Entrepreneurship and sponsored by Capital One, the Diamond Challenge is a global entrepreneurship competition for high school students offering $100,000 in awards. The competition has been ranked one of the top 29 best international business plan competitions by Alpha Gamma, a business portal for millennials.
This year the competition received applications from a record-breaking number of teams spanning 43 countries and 26 states. The Diamond Challenge also welcomed 12 new partners this year including three states and nine countries. The new partners include Irvine, Cal., San Jose, Cal., Newark, Del., Armenia, China, Costa Rica, Haiti, India, Liberia, Pakistan, South Korea and Spain.
Fifty teams have moved on to the semifinal round this year, which is the largest group of semifinalists in the history of the Diamond Challenge. Among these 50 teams, 20 countries and eight states are represented.
The Diamond Challenge has two tracks, business concept and social innovation. The business concept track focuses on the development and validation of new business models, while the social innovation track focuses on the development of revenue-generating nonprofit organizations and mission driven, for-profit ventures.
All applicants submitted a written concept and pitch deck to be judged by seasoned professionals from around the world.
Each semifinalist team is invited to attend the Diamond Challenge Youth Entrepreneurship Summit (the Summit) at UD from April 11-13. The Summit is a three-day conference that provides students and educators from around the world with the opportunity to develop new skills while energizing their entrepreneurial spirit.
The conference includes workshops, mentoring sessions and speeches from guest keynote speakers including CEO and Founder of The League, Amanda Bradford, Editor-In-Chief of Entrepreneur magazine, Jason Feifer, ScholarCHIPS founder Yasmine Arrington and ROAR founder Yasmine Mustafa.
The Diamond Challenge is one program in the Paul and Linda McConnell Youth Entrepreneurship Education Initiative.
Horn Entrepreneurship serves as the University of Delaware’s creative engine for entrepreneurship education and advancement. Built and actively supported by successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders, Horn Entrepreneurship empowers aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs as they pursue new ideas for a better world.