Diamond Challenge continues to grow in 2020

Eight years ago, the University of Delaware’s Horn Entrepreneurship held the first Diamond Challenge, a pitch competition for inventive high school students. Over the years, it’s become an international event including students from dozens of countries, culminating in the Diamond Challenge Summit at UD, taking place in 2020 from April 16 to 18.

Registration is now open for the 2020 competition, with the deadline for submissions falling on Jan. 8, 2020 — giving teams plenty of time to prepare, following the resources provided on the Diamond Challenge website.

What’s at stake? A piece of over $100,000 in seed funding and resources for winning teams, including topical prizes starting at $25,000 sponsored by companies in specific fields. In 2020, W. L. Gore & Associates will be among the companies to present one.

For Delaware students, it’s pretty simple. After submitting a pitch deck to either the business or social innovation tracks, teams may choose to participate in a live pitch event on one of 28 locations worldwide — conveniently, there will be one at UD on Feb. 29, 2020. And if you make it to the summit, you won’t have to worry about travel and accommodations.

This year, the addition of New York and Texas pitch locations will broaden the pool of U.S. contenders, and there will be locations in 21 countries in Africa, Asia, South America and Europe, including new additions Turkey and Egypt.