Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - 20 Aug 2015: IBM is calling for entrepreneurs to participate in its fourth SmartCamp in Australia, to be held in Melbourne on September 15.

SmartCamp participants will receive mentoring from industry experts and introductions to IBM’s global innovation ecosystem including venture capitalists. Applications close on September 1, 2015.

The winner of the Australia SmartCamp will receive:

• US$120,000 in IBM cloud credits (which includes mentoring, technical and go-to-market support),

• The chance to advance to the semi-finals, study and demo at LAUNCH Scale,

• The chance to compete at the 2016 global LAUNCH Festival (the world’s largest startup conference in San Francisco) and win the $25,000 LAUNCH Incubator investment prize.

SmartCamp is part of IBM’s Global Entrepreneur Program, ibmforentrepreneurs.com, designed to develop an early stage ecosystem to support emerging innovation-led companies on their journey to become leading brands. This year, SmartCamp will take place in over 30 cities around the world.

Four companies will be invited to a full day event on September 15 where participants will benefit from working with top-tier mentors from the local business, startups and VC communities. At the end of that day, they will pitch to a panel of industry experts. Startups including 9 Spokes, Temando and CropLogic have won previous SmartCamp editions in Australia and New Zealand.

“Melbourne has a great entrepreneurial spirit and we are happy to host SmartCamp here for the first time”, says Michael Stevens-Jones, Global Entrepreneur and SmartCamp Executive, IBM ANZ.

 

“I encourage all Australian early stage start-ups to apply for SmartCamp and tap into IBM's global networks, connecting with the people who can accelerate their business growth through technology development, capital and advice.”

For entry applications and audience registration to SmartCamp 2015 please visit:http://www.smartcamp2015.com/melbourne

About IBM Cloud

IBM Cloud offers the industry’s largest portfolio of software, services, datacenter solutions and consulting for private, public and hybrid cloud environments. Total revenue for IBM Cloud was $8.7 billion, for the second quarter, ending June 30, 2015, $4.5 billion of which was attributed to XaaS. From IBM’s Bluemix, Platform as a Service, to the IBM MobileFirst mobile application development platform, to the company’s global network of IBM SoftLayer datacenters, and much more, IBM is helping organisations large and small adopt, manage, scale and benefit from open cloud technologies.

Source: Press release