David 
05/01/2016
Nvidia (in collaboration with Flanders Investment & Trade) is looking for a dozen competitors for their annual Early Stage Challenge. The contest is open to startups from all over the world with less than $1 million in capital that use GPUs for AI, visualisation, robotics, automotive technology, entertainment, cloud and mobile computing.
Here’s how it works: CEOs get four minutes to pitch their company to Nvidia’s expert panel, and another four minutes to answer questions. After all have presented, the panel and audience choose a winner, who gets handed the check. It will all take place in a furious two hours at Nvidia’s annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC), on April 6, 2016, in Silicon Valley. Last year, GTC drew some 4,000 attendees from 40-plus countries.
A few previous participants that have gone on to greatness include:
- Oculus: The startup synonymous with VR appeared onstage and won an award at ECS in 2013. One year later, Facebook acquired it for $2 billion.
- NaturalMotion: In 2010, Nvidia featured this gaming company’s amazingly realistic physics simulation. Zynga acquired it in 2014 for $527 million.
- Elemental Technologies: This video streaming company, which won an award at Nvidia’s 2012 Emerging Companies Summit, is being acquired by Amazon for a reported $500 million.
- Gaikai: Shortly after appearing at ECS in 2012, game-streaming pioneer Gaikai was acquired by Sony for $380 million.
The deadline for submitting your proposal is January 12, 2016, so you better get going. Take a look at the Submission Notes on the Early Stage Challenge Application Portal
