The winner of StartCon’s new pitching competition will walk away with $1 million

Australian startup conference StartCon is launching a new ‘Pitch for $1 Million’ competition, backed by Right Click Capital, in a bid to help Asia-Pacific startups into the international market.

The winning startup will take home $1 million in funding from venture capital firm Right Click Capital, to put towards technology development, hiring of new talent, a scaling the business globally.

Benjamin Chong, partner at Right Click Capital, said in a statement the competition will help “the local startup ecosystem level the playing field with its US-based counterpart”.

Chong added that, along with the funding, Right Click Capital, which is part of the Draper Venture Network, will also contribute advice and support to the winning startup, “opening the door for it to draw on in-depth operational and expansion experiences”.

StartCon chief executive Cheryl Mack said in the statement: “There is so much startup talent in Asia Pacific that just needs a global stage in order to show how great their companies are. We’re giving them that stage.”

The launch of the Pitch for $1 Million competition signals a change in direction for StartCon’s annual pitch competition. The winner of last year’s competition, Australian regtech platform Checkbox, took home $120,000 IMB credits and a trip to San Francisco to compete in the Startup World Cup earlier this month.

The new-look competition is being touted as the biggest pitch competition in the Asia-Pacific region, and is set to bring together more than 600 startups and 400 investors, over 15 one-day events, each in a different city. Eight of the 15 events are in Australia.

Finalists from each event will be invited to StartCon 2018 in Sydney on November 30 and December 1, where the winner will be announced.

The first event is in Singapore on August 17, and the first in Australia will be in Adelaide on September 7.

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