Graham-WestonThe San Antonio MX Challenge has officially kicked off.
Silicon Hills News broke the story about the first local X-Prize challenge late last year when some members of the HeroX organization briefed the technology community about the contest at Geekdom.
Now the contest has officially launched at Geekdom, a collaborative co-working space in downtown San Antonio that serves as the catalyst for the local technology startup community.
The San Antonio MX Challenge seeks to foster greater collaboration between Mexico and San Antonio in the technology industry.
The prize is worth $500,000 and will be awarded to the individual, team or organization that creates a model to assist Mexican tech companies with opening offices in San Antonio.
“This challenge will be the catalyst between the San Antonio startup ecosystem and Mexican Entrepreneurs wishing to expand into the US,” Graham Weston, Co-founder & Chairman of Rackspace Hosting said in a news release. “We are already famous for this in San Antonio. Now we are going to show the rest of the world.”
The San Antonio Mx Challenge is the first to be launched through HeroX, a spinoff of XPRIZE, the world leader in incentivized prize competitions.
“I am proud to see the first competition launched on HeroX. It has been my dream for years to offer a platform that allows anyone to use incentive competitions to solve problems and drive innovation,” Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman & CEO of XPRIZE and Co-founder & Board Member of HeroX, said in a news release. “By bringing in solutions from anywhere, I’m convinced that competitions like this one will have a bright future both for social issues and for driving innovation faster than we can imagine.”
The criteria for winning the prize is listed on the San Antonio MX website. The challenge runs for 26 months and with early registration ending on Aug. 25th and final registration ending on Jan. 14, 2015.
A San Antonio MX Summit will also be held on Sept. 16, 2014.
The final winner will be announced on May 4, 2016.