2017 MARS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Launches on September 19 with Global Reach and Enhanced Support for Startups

September 6, 2017 — Beijing Duoniu Interactive Media Co., Ltd. (“Duoniu Media”) and Beijing Qunxing Capital Investment Management Co., Ltd. (“Qunxing Capital”) announced that the 2017 Qunxing MARS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (“Qunxing MARS Competition”) will officially launch on September 19. At that time, startup teams from around the world will be able to register through various channels and use the competition platform to present their ventures to professional investment institutions, opinion leaders, and consumers both in China and abroad. According to incomplete statistics, more than 10,000 projects worldwide have participated in the Qunxing MARS Competition over the past four years, with cumulative financing for award-winning projects nearing RMB 3 billion.

Launched in 2013 by Duoniu Media and Qunxing Capital, the Qunxing MARS Competition aims to identify outstanding technology startup teams. It helps these ventures achieve success by assisting with business structuring, facilitating industry connections, enhancing marketing capabilities, and providing training in fundraising techniques. Due to its adherence to a fully transparent mechanism that ensures fairness and impartiality, along with its continuously increasing support efforts, the competition has been hailed by external observers as “a contest truly serving entrepreneurs.”

The MARS All-Stars Competition has attracted over 10,000 startup teams from nearly 50 cities worldwide, spanning 17 sub-sectors including SaaS, finance, e-commerce, and platforms. To date, the competition has supported more than 300 projects, with a cumulative market valuation exceeding RMB 10 billion.

The competition has seen the emergence of numerous star startups, including Chunyu Doctor (2013), 3Glasses (2014), Footprint (2014), Caiqiu (2015), Da Zhangfang (2015), Sensors Data (2015), Airmule (2016), Flitto (2016), Rela (2016), PaiKu (2016), and Yiqixie (2016). According to incomplete statistics, award-winning projects have secured cumulative financing exceeding RMB 2.5 billion.

More than 300 investment firms have participated in previous editions of the Qunxing MARS Competition, with over 1,000 investors in attendance. The event has collaborated with more than 100 business institutions and established connections with over 100 entrepreneurs. The resulting Qunxing MARS Strategic Alliance provides outstanding entrepreneurs with extensive and rich industry resources.

Qunxing MARS attracted coverage from over 500 media outlets, building a robust communication network for entrepreneurs. During the 2016 competition, its “multi-dimensional communication matrix,” comprising eight categories of media—online, mobile, out-of-home, television, live streaming, video, print, and radio—reached over 8 million people daily during the event period, with cumulative impressions exceeding 200 million. The campaign spanned 127 days, delivering advertising inventory valued at more than RMB 30 million.

The Qunxing MARS Competition also pioneered the use of video live-streaming platforms to broadcast the event, achieving a peak concurrent viewership of 3 million.

Furthermore, the Qunxing MARS Competition’s initiative to feature finalists from previous MARS finals on the big screens of Times Square in New York showcased the spirit of Chinese entrepreneurs to the U.S. financial markets, becoming a widely discussed event within China’s startup community. The theme song of the Qunxing MARS Entrepreneurship Competition, “Partners,” endorsed and performed by Sha Baoliang, once topped multiple professional music charts, becoming an anthem representative of Chinese entrepreneurship.

On September 19, 2017, Duoniu Media will jointly hold a press conference with Qunxing Capital to announce the new edition of the entrepreneurship competition, at which time the relevant policies and resources for the 2017 Qunxing MARS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition will be disclosed.