SURF 2025: Catalyst for startup ambitions

A representative of the UCTalent project receives the first prize at the SURF 2024. Photo: MAI QUE

This year’s event will carry the theme ‘Policy Launchpad – Nurturing Unicorns’ and the message ‘Da Nang – The City of Innovation’.

In 2024, two standout projects, UCTalent and BINKS, emerged from the competition and gained international recognition. UCTalent, an AI-based talent and recruitment platform for the Web3 space, has recently won third prize at the Global Vietnam Business (GVB) Startup 2025. Meanwhile, BINKS, a plant-based ink developed by students from the Institute for Research and Executive Education (VNUK) and the University of Economics under the University of Da Nang), has been honoured for outstanding applied research at the 37th Management Grand Awards in Seoul, South Korea.

SURF 2025 features 30 competing teams. Projects will have the chance to pitch directly to investors, funds, and industry experts. Evaluation criteria include innovation, technological edge, problem-solving capacity, business feasibility, scalability, team capability, and social/environmental impact.

According to Nguyen Viet Toan, the Director of Da Nang’s Innovation Startup Support Center, SURF enhances startup capacity while building bridges between founders, experts and investors.

The event will feature both online and in-person international investment forums with renowned startup founders and entrepreneurs as speakers. It will also include an exhibition showcasing 100 startup innovation booths, the SURF Startup Competition awards ceremony, and a variety of other activities.

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