WalletKo and HomePro advance to the GNVC Finals

On Feburary 9, MBA teams from Hong Kong competed at the semi-finals of the 2018 Global New Venture Challenge (GNVC).

Thirty teams applied to participate in GNVC this year from Booth’s three global campuses — Chicago, Hong Kong and London. Six were selected to compete in Hong Kong and Chicago respectively, and the seven selected in London will face off on February 23.

Waverly Deutsch, academic director for university-wide entrepreneurship content and professor for the GNVC, along with a panel of distinguished judges and venture capitalists chose the two teams would move onto the finals.

Participating teams in the Hong Kong semi-final ranged from fintech ideas that target stock trading and overseas remittances, to healthcare solutions that help streamline both public and private healthcare. Out of the six teams, which include BundVestors, Careberry, HomePro, OrderUnity, TAFi, and WalletKo, the judges selected WalletKo and HomePro to advance to the GNVC finals.

WalletKo is a mobile app that enables overseas foreign workers to instantly send money to beneficiaries in Philippines up to 8x cheaper than traditional methods.

HomePro will bring home based nursing and therapy care to elders in China promoting patient outcome and reducing the burden of care for their family.

The two companies advancing from Hong Kong will compete against the winners of the Chicago and London semi-finals on April 12 at the 2018 GNVC finals.

Now in its 11th year, the GNVC is an expansion of the top-ranked Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge, and is designed exclusively for Chicago Booth’s executive MBA students. It debuted in 2008 to accommodate the growing entrepreneurial aspirations of Booth’s executive MBA students on each of its three global campuses—North America, Europe, and Asia. The program is run by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in collaboration with the Executive MBA program at Chicago Booth.