NextEntre 2025 Kicks Off! Student Pitching Event at CEATEC

NextEntre 2025: Shaping Tomorrow's Visionaries

The NextEntre 2025 initiative has officially launched, aiming to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit among students. This student-centered pitch battle, which invites middle school, high school, and university students, will be held at the renowned CEATEC event. It encourages participants to leverage technology and their innate curiosities to explore solutions across various themes. The competition spans critical areas such as AI, sustainability, education, creativity, and work styles, establishing a breeding ground for future entrepreneurs, researchers, and cross-border professionals.

What is NextEntre?

NextEntre empowers youth to transform their passions into potential business models, demonstrating the idea that their personal interests could indeed reshape global landscapes. It's more than just a competition; it's often seen as a gateway to innovation and entrepreneurship, where young minds can challenge the norm and push boundaries.

Moreover, the initiative will feature a panel of esteemed judges from various business sectors, who will bring insights and expertise to the evaluation process.

Four Major Theme Areas

Students will organize their pitches around four thematic areas:
1. Future Learning: Integrating AI, education, and creativity to reimagine how we learn.
2. Social Infrastructure: Focusing on smart cities and disaster prevention technologies.
3. Earth and Industry: Concentrating on primary industries, renewable energy, and sustainability practices.
4. Transforming Passion into Value: Highlighting generative AI, the creator economy, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

Benefits of Participating

Joining NextEntre offers several advantages:

- Pitch at CEATEC: Selected finalists will present their ideas at the main CEATEC event.
- Mentorship: Participants gain access to mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and industry experts.
- Career Development: Experience gained through NextEntre is highly valuable for student entrepreneurs, job seekers, and those applying to universities abroad.
- Constructive Feedback: Participants will receive valuable feedback from a distinguished panel of judges.

Schedule for NextEntre 2025

- August 1: Online information sessions commence.
- August 23 (Saturday): Bootcamp held at SAAI Yurakucho.
- September 6: Submission deadline for applications.
- Late September: Announcements of selected participants and mentoring period begins.
- October 14: Final pitch event at CEATEC, held at Makuhari Messe.

How to Apply

Students can submit their proposals in any of the following formats: PowerPoint, PDF, or Google Slides (flexible format). Both individuals and teams are welcome to participate. The competition is open to middle schoolers, high schoolers, university students, and technical college attendees (students studying abroad are also encouraged to apply). For more details, interested candidates can visit the NextEntre application page.