Macau, China, June 26, 2025 (Lusa) - The fifth edition of the 929 Challenge competition in Macau will include a prize for the best start-up from Portuguese Language Countries in Africa (PALOP) and Timor-Leste, the organisation announced on Thursday.
Marco Duarte Rizzolio, co-founder of the 929 Challenge, told Lusa that the ‘Future Builders’ award was created to encourage participants from less developed Portuguese-speaking countries.
“We have a common language, but the level of economic development in each country is completely different,” Rizzolio explained on the sidelines of a press conference.
The latest edition of the competition for Chinese and Portuguese Language Countries start-ups reached a new high, with more than 1,600 participants in over 320 teams.
However, in 2024, the 929 Challenge did not receive any projects from Timor-Leste or São Tomé and Príncipe.
With the new award, Rizzolio said he hoped that this year’s edition would feature startups from all nine Portuguese-speaking countries.
“The goal is to encourage, but also to help (...). If they manage to win that award, it is already something motivating for them, so they can develop the project,” he explained.
The Portuguese start-up Iplexmed, which develops rapid genetic diagnostic devices, won last year’s edition, while NS2, also from Portugal, which provides intelligent solutions for monitoring water quality for sustainable aquaculture, came third.
The only time a team from the PALOP countries and Timor-Leste reached the finalists was in the first edition, launched in 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, which was then only aimed at university students.
A project by the Lusophone University of Guinea-Bissau to install solar panels in the Gabu region, in the east of the country, came second.
“In the end, the winners are often teams that already have mature products and services,” explained Rizzolio.
Registration is open until September 30 for both companies and teams of university students.
Rizzolio, also a professor at the City University of Macau, recalled that the competition has new partners, including StartupPorto, Cabo Verde Digital and Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique.
The best 16 plans - eight from companies and eight from university students - will have 10 minutes to convince the 929 Challenge jury and potential investors in the final in November.
The other co-founder of the competition, José Alves, stressed that the competition “is not yet a success” because so far it has not managed to attract projects to open doors in Macau.
“We need to identify the best start-ups, invest in them and bring them to the mainland Chinese market, or take them from China to Portuguese-speaking countries,” the professor explained.
The competition is co-organised by the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese Language Countries (Macau) and by various institutions in the Chinese special administrative region, including all universities.
The deputy secretary-general of Forum Macau, Danilo Afonso Henriques, reiterated at the press conference that “establishing start-ups in Macau requires continued support”.
“Without collective and sustained efforts, this vision risks remaining unfulfilled, rendering the efforts and hard work of so many redundant,” warned the Timorese.
VQ/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
