Win up to $50k in non-dilutive grant funding.

Pitch your startup.

Open to early-stage startups anywhere, from just a business idea to post your first fundraise.

In recognition of the rapidly globalising startup and venture funding ecosystem, Harvard College China Forum is opening its pitch competition to startups globally.

Finalists will be pitching on April 5th 2025, during the 28th Harvard College China Forum. The competition is open to participants to attend both virtually and in-person.

 

Pitch Competition Schedule

Application Deadline

Finalist Annoucement

Pitch Competition

3/18 11:59PM

3/26

4/5

What Our Participants Say

"What Harvard College China Pitch offers to startups is first and foremost its global influence. The XtalPi team is very grateful to have been given the opportunity to present our idea at the competition. We received invaluable feedbacks from top-notch investors, which are very helpful to the development of our company in the future. After the Forum we were promptly invested by competition judges ZhenFund and FreeS. Organizers of the Forum were extremely thoughtful throughout the process, from arranging rehearsals before, coordinating media coverage at, to organizing recruiting events after the competition."

— Frank Wen,  Founder and CEO of XtalPi

Past Sponsors and Judges

  • ZhenFund

  • Primavera Capital

  • GGV Capital

  • UpHonest Capital

  • Anna Fang

    Anna Fang is the CEO and Founding Partner of ZhenFund.

  • Fred Hu

    Fred Hu is Primavera Capital Group’s Founder, Chairman, and CEO.

  • Hans Tung

    Hans Tung is a Managing Partner at GGV Capital, focusing on early-stage investments across the global digital economy ecosystem.

  • Brad Bao

    Brad Bao is the Co-Founder and Chairman at Lime.

Past Winners

  • BrainCo

    • Brain-Machine Interface devices

    • Founded by Bicheng Han, Harvard PhD Candidate

    • Featured as Time Magazine “100 Best Inventions 2019”

    • As of November 2022, BrainCo's total funding has exceeded $200 million, establishing itself as an unicorn.

  • XtalPi

    • AI-assisted drug discovery platform

    • Founded by Jian Ma, MIT postdoctoral researcher

    • Received investments from competition judges ZhenFund and FreeS right after winning the HCCF pitch competition

    • Held its IPO in Hong Kong on June 13, 2024. XtalPi's IPO was the third-largest IPO in Hong Kong in 2024.

FAQs

  • The deadline to apply is 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, March 18th, 2025. We are evaluating applications and emailing next-round interview notifications on a rolling basis, with finalist announcements made by Friday, March 26th, 2025.

    Should your company be selected as a finalist in this competition, you and your co-founders will need to be available to deliver a live pitch and answer judges' Q&A, during the following time:

    - Saturday April 5th Eastern Standard Time

  • Yes. We welcome applications from founders globally. We are also industry and stage agnostic.