The final stage of “New Idea VI” startup competition conducted under the organization of BEU and Ministry of Economy funded by BP Azerbaijan within the partnership of ASAn Innovation Center has been held.

   Head of the project, Isa Gasimov, who opened the event held at the Baku Business Center, informed the participants about the history, the purpose of “New Idea” project and the results of previous competitions.

   Deputy Minister of Economy Sahib Mammadov welcomed the event's participants on the behalf of the Ministry and gave detailed information about the works done by President Ilham Aliyev on the creation innovative entrepreneurship in our country and the activities of innovative parks with modern technology established for strengthening the competitiveness of the economy. Noting the impact of innovation in the globalization of the global economy, the Deputy Minister emphasized the relevance of the competition in this regard.

  Rector of Baku Engineering University, Professor Havar Mammadov made a speech at the event. Welcoming the participants, the Rector noted that intellectual capital, as well as intellectual business were developing properly in Azerbaijan under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev. BEU also builds its activity in accordance with the socio-economic policy of the President in the direction of the development of intellectual capital in our country, as well as the formation of information society. The Rector also pointed out that Technopark was functioning at the University and the innovations, as well as innovative entrepreneurship and startups were supported.

   The “New Idea VI” startup competition funded by BP Azerbaijan, unlike the former competitions contributes the new startups to enter ecosystem. Thus, training and mentorship programmes sponsored by BP not only strengthen the startups, but also contribute to the formation and development of new startup projects. Overall, 46 hours of training and 271 hours of mentorship services were conducted for about 1000 business entrepreneurs from Baku, Sumagit, Ganja. BP contributes to the strengthening of innovation ecosystems, which is one of the most urgent directions of reforms in Azerbaijan, as well as the development of innovative entrepreneurship by supporting the competition.

  "New Idea" startup competition is a project that promotes and supports the development of innovative entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship, startups or technology). 842 startup projects applied.  More than 100 of them have been directly supported. Development of 35 project was supported by seed investment and incubation services with the support of sponsors and partners. This year, 118 projects were registered to participate in the competition. 36 of them were eligible to attend the semifinals, and 12 of them competed in the finals.

  Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, Communications, external affairs, strategy and region vice president of BP Azerbaijan, highlighted his satisfaction about the support BP provided to “New Idea VI” startup competition as one of “ Social Investment Strategy” of BP. He said that there was a collaboration between BP and BEU. Emphasizing the role of startups in the modern era, the speaker noted that the participation of schoolchildren in the "New Idea VI" startup competition was also commendable.

   After the speeches, the teams presented their startup projects and answered questions of the jury. At the end of the presentation, “WASCO”, “11delivery.com”, “Nanomaterial qatılmış yüksek keçirici naqil”, “TermoNorth” və “BETA-KİDS Education kit”  projects were awarded the first 5 places, respectively. Hence, “WASCO” and “11delivery.com” startup projects were awarded with 8000 and 6000 AZN, accordingly. In addition, the process of commercialization of the five winner projects will be supported by incubation and acceleration services at the Technopark of BEU and INNOLAND Incubation and Acceleration Center, which operates under the ASAN Innovation Center. Moreover, financial support will also be spent on commercialization of the alleged business ideas in startup projects.