The second cycle of Spark.me startup adventures begins
The company doMEn, the registry of the Montenegrin national domain.ME, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), with the support of the Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media and the Ministry of Economic Development, launched the second cycle of the project "Spark.me startup adventure". Those interested in Montenegro will be able to acquire free of charge skills in the field of entrepreneurship and startup business. Applications are open on the website www.stemedukacija.me until midnight on October 24, while the right to participate are teams with at least three and at most five adult members who have an idea how to solve a certain social problem, business challenge or help in digitalization of a public administration service Teams that participated in the previous cycle, but did not go further, can re-apply. For those with the best ideas, cash prizes are provided from the fund which amounts up to € 60,000.
After closing the applications, 10 selected teams will have the opportunity to develop and present their ideas at a three-day online workshop that will take place from 12 to 14 November. At the end of the workshop, three teams will be selected for the next phase of the competition, which will be awarded up to 5,000 euros to lay the foundations of their startup, but also provided mentoring support for three months in business management, programming and UX design. In order for the three selected teams to receive cash prizes, it is necessary for them to form some form of legal entity that is in line with their business idea. After three months, the teams will gather again in the finals of the competition, where the best among them will receive up to 15,000 euros as a reward for continuing their business.
In order to encourage and support women's entrepreneurship and girls who are building careers in the field of information technology, one place among the selected teams in both cycles is reserved for the team that will be mostly or entirely women. Therefore, we encourage all women interested in the STEM field to apply to participate in the competition!
The specificity of the second cycle of the competition is that the finals of the first cycle of the competition will be held on the same day. The three winning teams from the first cycle, BeBeep.me, Egregium and RENERGY Montenegro, which have already won 5,000 euros each to lay the groundwork for their startup and currently enjoy three months of mentoring support, will compete for the top prize of up to € 15,000.
The organizer and conceptual creator of the project, the company doMEn, has been working for years to connect young people in Montenegro with the occupations of the future and new technologies. After supporting the startups Trguj.Me and Honorarium last year through a donation of EUR 40,000, it continues to focus its socially responsible business on the Montenegrin community and young people. UNDP, the international project partner and initiator of the online hackathon Coronathon.me, continuously provides support to Montenegro in long-term capacity building for faster socio-economic development, through the digitalization process, primarily guided by the concept of human development, especially when it comes to the most vulnerable categories of society.
For more information about the project "Spark.me startup adventure" rules of participation and criteria, visit the official website - https://stemedukacija.me/. For all additional questions, those interested can contact the organizers via email info@stemedukacija.me, or via social networks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stemedukacija and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_stem_edukacija/.