Published on the 19/08/2015 | Written by Newsdesk

Budding tech millionaires listen up: IBM is providing the opportunity for Kiwi entrepreneurs to benefit from industry expert mentoring and introductions to its global innovation ecosystem, including venture capitalists.

That’s up for grabs with the company’s first New Zealand SmartCamp, the winner of which will receive US$120,000 in IBM cloud credits, which includes mentoring, technical and go-to-market support.

SmartCamp is part of IBM’s Global Entrepreneur Program, which is designed to develop an early stage ecosystem to support emerging innovation-led companies on their journey to become leading brands in their own right. This year, Smartcamp events will take place in over 30 cities worldwide.

The New Zealand winner will also enjoy the opportunity to progress further to the SmartCamp semi-finals and from there, potentially study and demo at the LAUNCH Scale conference and the 2016 global LAUNCH Festival, the world’s largest startup conference which takes place in San Francisco.

Kiwi startups CropLogic and 9 Spokes have won previous regional SmartCamps held in Sydney, but this is the first event to take place in New Zealand.

“The era of cloud opens up many new opportunities for New Zealand startups to go global, unhindered by physical distance from their customers [and] there is a great entrepreneurial spirit in this country,” said Phil Sheehan, IBM NZ, cloud partner executive. “SmartCamp [provides an opportunity to] and tap into IBM’s global networks, connecting with the people who can accelerate technology development, provide capital and advice.”

Applications close on 3rd September, 2015. Four companies will be invited to a full day event on 17th September at the end of which they will pitch to a panel of industry experts. Participants will benefit from working with top-tier mentors from the local business, startup, and VC communities.

For entry applications and audience registration to SmartCamp 2015