Startup Village is all set to host the regional round of the BizSpark India Startup Challenge, organised by Microsoft, to find entrepreneurs in the areas of cloud computing, mobile applications and Windows 8 business applications. The event starts at 3.30 pm on May 29 and will be presided over by senior officials from the Startup Village and Microsoft. For the first time Kochi has been selected among the 10 cities that host the program. Winners of the regional rounds can contest in the national finals to be held in Bengaluru. The competition offers cash awards amounting to $70,000 and non-cash prizes worth $2 mn. The Microsoft BizSpark India Startup Challenge 2013 is open to persons who are 18 years or older. Registered contestants will be required to present their business plans which should include everything from market analysis to competitive overview and financial projections, before a high-profile jury. Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Chennai are the other cities hosting the regional challenges which will be held over two weeks until June 7. “Microsoft’s choice of Startup Village as the host for the challenge is not just an acknowledgement of the tremendous strides we have made over the past one year, it also heralds the arrival of Kochi on India’s entrepreneurial map,” said Sijo Kuruvilla George, CEO, Startup Village. Microsoft had earlier chosen Profoundis, one of the companies in the Startup Village, for its accelerator programme.