Start-ups to vie for prizes in Sydney on Friday

Entrepreneurs with novel start-up ideas will this week compete for a $13,000 prize pool during the 2013 Sydney Genesis Entrepreneurship Challenge.

The competition is operated by the University of Sydney Business School, but participation wasn’t limited to the school’s students. All told 60 teams entered this year’s competition.

Over the past 10 weeks, the teams have taken part in workshops aimed at helping them develop their start-up ideas. Eleven finalists have been selected across two categories - business and technology start-ups and not-for-profit start-ups - to compete for the final prizes.

Finalists’ start-up ideas include a watch that transmits an alert when the elderly wearer falls, a smartphone app that makes a donation to charity when a user fails to stick to a resolution and glasses with self-adjustable lenses for people with no access to optometrists.

Winners will be selected on Friday night. This year there are four categories of prizes - best business or technology start-up, best social or not-for-profit start-up, best branding opportunity and best landing page design.

Five students will also be selected to attend a two-day workshop from business incubator ATP Innovations.

Last year’s winner, an app that links babysitters to clients, went on to secure financial backing from BlackBerry.

Pictured: University of Sydney. Image courtesy of Philip Choi under CC