GLOBIS Venture Challenge

G-CHALLENGE

What is G-CHALLENGE?

The GLOBIS Venture Challenge (G-CHALLENGE) is a business plan contest open exclusively to current students and graduates of the Graduate School of Management, GLOBIS University.

The purpose of the G-CHALLENGE is to encourage the creation of new businesses, both for aspiring entrepreneurs who wish to take on the challenge and for established business owners seeking to grow by providing the following opportunities:

  • A real-world opportunity to help students build a reliable team to develop a business
  • Mentoring from teammates and experienced judges
  • Opportunities to gain numerous supporters for the business
  • Funding for the submitted business plan submitted

To apply, applicants must submit a business plan with other required information during the entry period. If the applicant is selected as a finalist, they will pitch their business plan before a panel of judges at the G-CHALLENGE Final. The winning team(s) will be awarded the opportunity to receive mentoring and an investment of up to 10 million yen by GLOBIS University.

Overall Schedule

  • Application Period: Oct. 20 (Mon) – Nov 2 (Sun), 2025
  • Final Presentation: Feb. 1 (Sun), 2026
    *Scheduled to be held at the GLOBIS University Tokyo Campus, in a hybrid format

G-CHALLENGE 2025 Online Information Session

Click here to download the Information Guide and view Zoom recordings.

Eligibility

  • At least one of the board members is (as registered) or will be (if before company registration) a GLOBIS MBA student or alum (excluding Pre-MBA students).
  • At least one GLOBIS student/alum must commit to the business full-time. If the company has not yet been established, the team must either plan to establish a business within 1 year after G-CHALLENGE or after graduating from GLOBIS.
  • Your team must intend to accept the investment from G-CHALLENGE upon receipt of the award.
  • Entry is open to those who have already started their own business, regardless of the number of years they have been in business.
  • Only officially registered companies are considered established if it has an official registration.
  • Nonprofit organizations are not eligible to join, regardless of whether or not they have entered the KIBOW Award.
  • The management team fully committed to the plan to apply for the G-CHALLENGE must own the majority of the shares and be able to make decisions independently. Applications by special-purpose subsidiaries or by management teams under the effective control of a third party will not be accepted.
  • The language used in the submitted materials/presentations should be in Japanese or English.　
  • In principle, contestants who reside in Japan must present at the Tokyo Campus on the day of the competition.

How to Enter

Apply through the G-CHALLENGE Entry Form.

Prize

Two types of awards will be given in this competition. Multiple teams may receive each award, or none may be awarded. 

  1. Grand Prize
    Open to all participating teams. Evaluation is primarily based on business success and expansion potential, as well as financial return (refer to “Criteria for Judgment” in the Information Guide for details).
  2. KIBOW Award
    Open to teams applying to this award. While financial return is considered, the business plan must also show the potential for social impact—a lasting contribution toward solving social issues (refer to “Criteria for Judgment” in the Information Guide for details).

Either award contains the following benefits: 

  • Opportunity to receive an investment of up to 10 million JPY per company from the GLOBIS Venture Challenge Fund. 
  • Mentoring by GLOBIS University for up to one year upon agreeing to the investment.
  • Promotional support  for products/services (e.g., posters on campus, etc.)
  • Use of a classroom at the Tokyo campus for seminars, customer meetings, etc.

About KIBOW Award

The KIBOW Award, newly established in 2023 as part of the G-CHALLENGE, places social impact as a key evaluation criterion. Social impact refers to the extent to which a single business contributes to solving or improving social issues. As the world, including Japan, faces a wide range of social challenges—for example, climate change, isolation among the elderly, unequal educational opportunities for young people, and declining well-being of residents in regions experiencing depopulation—innovations that address these challenges are highly anticipated.

In the past, social-impact-focused innovations often struggled to attract venture capital, as socially driven businesses were frequently viewed with the bias that they could not generate financial returns. However, today, with the rise of impact investing and impact startups, this perception is gradually changing. Pioneering this shift is KIBOW. The KIBOW Foundation (Chair: Yoshito Hori), established to support recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake, launched an impact investment fund for entrepreneurs in 2015, investing in startups that create new hope through solving social issues. GLOBIS invests in this fund and manages its operations.

We encourage everyone who aims to create social impact to participate in G-CHALLENGE and aspire to win the KIBOW Award.

Contact

G-CHALLENGE Office, Graduate School of Management, GLOBIS University

Email: gvc@globis.co.jp
(Monday–Friday) 10:00 – 18:30 JST
(Saturday, Sunday, Public Holiday) Inquiries will be processed from the following business day.
Visit the G-CHALLENGE website in Japanese.