IC25 Official Rules and Regulations 7bc9b5f087ac
IC25 Official Rules and Regulations 7bc9b5f087ac
Imagine Cup
2025 Season
Version 1
October 2024
Last updated September 2024
OVERVIEW
The Imagine Cup is Microsoft’s premier global technology startup competition that enables
student founders using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Microsoft Cloud to turn innovative
ideas into market-ready startups. To compete, products must utilize at least one Microsoft AI
service. Submissions should include a pitch deck, recorded pitch, and demo video, all addressing
the judging criteria outlined in these rules.
SPONSOR
These Official Rules (“Rules”) govern the operation of the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition
("Competition"). Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA, 98052, USA, is the
Competition sponsor (“Sponsor”).
DEFINITIONS
In these Rules, “Microsoft”, "we," "our," and "us" refer to Sponsor and “you” and “yourself” refers
to a Competition entrant, or the parent/legal guardian of any Competition entrant who has not
reached the age of majority to contractually obligate themselves in their legal place of
residence. By entering, you (your parent/legal guardian if you are not the age of majority in your
place of legal residence) agree to be bound by these Rules.
COMPETITION SCHEDULE
This Competition starts at 00:00 Coordinated Universal Time (“UTC”) on October 1, 2024 and
ends in May 2025 and will consist of multiple rounds as follows. Final dates for the Semifinals
and World Championship rounds will be communicated to eligible entrants via email and on
your account page on the Imagine Cup website.
You must submit an entry to the MVP Round to be eligible to advance in the Competition.
ELIGIBILITY
You are eligible to compete if you meet the following requirements below at time of entry,
which is defined as the most recent date you have submitted an entry into a specific round.
• You are at least 18 years of age as of October 1, 2024; and
o If you are 18 years of age or older but have not reached the age of majority in
your legal place of residence, then you must have consent of a parent/legal
guardian.
• All team members must be enrolled students at an accredited educational institution
that grants high-school or college/university (or equivalent) degrees (including home
schools) at any time between October 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025; and
• You are NOT a resident of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Russia, and the Region
of Crimea; and
o U.S. export regulations prohibit the export of goods and services to Cuba, Iran,
North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Russia, and the Region of Crimea. Therefore, residents
of these countries/regions are not eligible to participate.
• You/your business has not received any dilutive funding; and
• You/your business has not received external, non-dilutive funding of more than
$100,000 USD; and
• You are not an employee or intern of Microsoft Corporation, or an employee of a
Microsoft subsidiary, at any time between October 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025; and
• You are not involved in any part of the execution or administration of this Competition;
and
• You are not an immediate family member of (parent, sibling, spouse/domestic partner,
child) or household member of a Microsoft employee, an employee of a Microsoft
subsidiary, or a person involved in any part of the administration and execution of this
Competition between October 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025.
Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors who meet the eligibility criteria set forth above may
enter the Competition but cannot use any resources which are not broadly available to all other
students in connection with the creation or execution of an entry. This includes using Microsoft
property, internal resources, Student Ambassador benefits, and/or the work of Microsoft
employees. If you have any questions, please reach out to your Community Program Manager.
This Competition is void outside the geographic area described above and wherever else
prohibited by law.
HOW TO ENTER
• Register on the Imagine Cup website and create your team. Additional criteria on teams
are listed in the Teams and Mentors section provided later in the rules.
• Sign up for Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub (one registration per team) and include
Imagine Cup as your Microsoft partner under “Affiliations”. Your startup must meet all
program eligibility requirements. Once admitted, you will receive various benefits to help
you build your Imagine Cup entry.
• Follow the submission requirements listed below.
• To submit an entry, visit the Imagine Cup website and follow the instructions to submit
your entry.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The following criteria apply to all Imagine Cup submissions:
• Your product must be built with and require one (1) or more Microsoft AI service(s) to
operate. Microsoft AI service(s) include Azure AI Services and Azure AI Studio.
• All submission materials, including your pitch deck materials, recorded videos of your
pitch and demo, and live presentations during judging rounds, must be in the English
language. While your product may support multiple languages, English must be one of
the represented languages.
• All submissions will be evaluated by judges using the relevant competition round
judging criteria provided later in these rules.
COMPETITION DETAILS
Below is a description of each competition round and the associated submission requirements.
To be eligible, an entry must meet the following requirements for the applicable round.
You may only submit one (1) entry per competition round. We will disqualify any incomplete or
illegible entries that we receive or entries that we determine do not meet the above criteria in
our sole and absolute discretion. We are not responsible for entries that we do not receive for
any reason or for entries that we receive but are not decipherable for any reason. Any attempt
by you to obtain more than the stated number of entries by using multiple/different accounts,
email addresses, identities, registrations, logins, or any other methods will void your entries and
you may be disqualified. Use of any automated system to participate is prohibited.
Winning the Idea Round: Teams in the Idea Submission round will be evaluated by judges using
the Idea judging criteria provided later in these rules. Top submissions will win a mentorship
session with an industry expert, where you will have the opportunity to gather feedback on your
idea and proposed business model.
Pitch Deck: a slide presentation that you will use to present your startup. We
recommend referencing the following resources when building your pitch deck:
• How to pitch your company – module on Microsoft Learn
Recorded Videos, including a 3-minute pitch video and a 2-minute demo video. Both
videos must meet all criteria:
• You must provide publicly accessible URLs where the video files can be viewed by
judges. We suggest sharing the video via Microsoft OneDrive or other public video
hosting platforms.
• You may not edit the video in any way except to trim the beginning and/or ending
so the video only includes the pitch or demo itself.
• Each video file must be no larger than 100MB. You may compress each file into a ZIP
file for submission.
• While only registered team members may participate in the recorded videos, it is not
a requirement that all team members be present in the videos.
Pitch Video: a 3-minute maximum video that records your team pitching your
startup as if you were pitching live to judges/investors.
• Your video must simulate the experience of a judge viewing your pitch.
• Place your video camera where a judge might sit and then record your pitch
to the camera.
Demo Video: a 2-minute maximum narrated video that records your team showing
how someone uses your product. This video should mimic a live demo.
• Follow the steps on How to Build a Demo Video from Microsoft for Startups.
Interactive Prototypes (optional): you are welcome but not required to share
interactive, high-fidelity prototypes using a prototyping tool (e.g., Figma, Axure) to show
your product’s functionality and the experience the user will have. These prototypes
should mimic the functionality and interaction of the product you are demoing and will
share during the technical review should you progress to the semifinals.
• Generate a direct link to your prototypes that is publicly available for judges
to review. Do not password protect the prototypes and disable any
commenting features if possible.
o Figma instructions for how to create direct link to prototypes
o Axure instructions for how to create direct link to prototypes
MVP Round Advancement: Teams in the MVP round will be evaluated by judges using the
MVP judging criteria provided later in these rules. The MVP round will result in a minimum of
ten (10) teams that will advance to the Semifinal round. This will be communicated no later than
February 24, 2025.
Semifinals Round
Gain access to additional benefits to accelerate your growth, including mentorship, global
recognition, and expert guidance within Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub. In this round, you
will participate in a deep dive technical review with Microsoft experts, work on your pitch and
strategy with mentors and experts, and pitch live to a virtual panel of judges.
A minimum of eighteen (18) teams will be selected to compete in the Semifinals. This will
include a minimum of ten (10) teams, which were selected from the MVP round evaluation
process, and a minimum of eight (8) teams from identified university entrepreneurship
programs, which will be selected based on an evaluation process with the same judging criteria
as the MVP round.
Teams are required to participate in the following activities and submit the following materials,
which must collectively address each of the Semifinals judging criteria provided later in these
rules.
Technical Review
At the start of the Semifinals round, all semifinalists will undergo a one-time technical
review conducted by Microsoft experts. This review aims to ensure that the submitted
solutions are authentic and fully functional. You will be asked to walk through and
explain your complete solution and architecture so that experts can verify its capabilities
and ensure that it meets submission criteria.
Live Pitch and Demo: a 5-minute maximum presentation that will be given live to a
panel of judges. The 5-minute allotment will include your core pitch about your startup
as well as your working demo. This will be a refined version of the pitch and demo that
you submitted to the MVP round.
Semifinals Advancement: Teams in the Semifinals round will be evaluated by judges using the
Semifinals judging criteria provided later in these rules. The Semifinals will result in three (3)
teams who will advance to the World Championship. No other team rankings will be released.
This will be communicated no later than April 4, 2025.
World Championship
The World Championship is the culmination of the competition, where teams continue to hone
their pitch with additional mentoring. This round may take place virtually or in person, with the
top three teams presenting live to a panel of judges who are experts in their respective field.
Competitors must have the same materials prepared as required in the Semifinals round, which
is outlined above. At least one (1) member of the team must be present for the World
Championship virtually or in person if applicable to compete for the prize.
Winning the World Championship: Teams in the World Championship round will be evaluated
by judges using the judging criteria provided later in these rules. Judges will select one (1) first
place team and two (2) runners-up teams. No other team rankings will be released.
For the World Championship, each entry will receive a score based on some or all of the criteria
mentioned above. There may also include a public voting element. Exact criteria, including the
voting process and any limitations, will be published before the World Championship. If public
voting is used to help determine scores, it is strictly prohibited to obtain votes through
fraudulent or inappropriate means, such as offering prizes or other incentives in exchange for
votes, using automated programs, or creating fraudulent IDs. Microsoft reserves the right to
void any suspicious votes.
In the event of a tie between any eligible entries, an additional judge will break the tie based on
the judging criteria mentioned above. The judges’ decisions are final and binding.
PRIZES
The World Champion will be awarded $100,000 USD and each runner-up team will receive
$25,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of the team or the
incorporated business, paid out via electronic transfer to the registered member’s and/or
business bank, and a mentorship call with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella.
All prizes are stated in U.S. dollars, but we, or our local subsidiary or designated agent (on our
behalf), may award a cash prize in the official currency of the winner’s country of residence
based on the exchange rate on the date of payment.
The intent and spirit of the Competition is to evaluate and showcase the skills and creativity of
the student entrants. Anyone acting as a team mentor, or in any mentorship role, where allowed,
must limit their support to general guidance. They must not contribute in any way that could be
considered original authorship or that could enable claims of rights or ownership to the
submitted entries. Under no circumstances will work on behalf of teams or individuals be
allowed.
Copyright
Your entire entry must only include material (including source code – both open source and
third party sourced, user interface, music, video, or images) that you own or that you have
permission to use from the copyright/trademark owner. Your entry will be disqualified if it
includes copyrighted materials (such as source code, user interface, background music, images,
or video) without appropriate licensing or permissions. If you use permissible copyrighted
materials, you must include permissions information by citing the artist/creator and license
information as per the Competition Rules. Note that even material released under sites such as
Creative Commons, common open-source code licenses, and other similar licensing may need
permission or acknowledgement as per the specific license. Note: your team’s entry will be
disqualified if permissions information is not included as per the requirements in the specific
Competition Rules.
All local laws apply. The decisions of Microsoft are final and binding.
We reserve the right to cancel, change, or suspend this Competition for any reason, including
cheating, technology failure, catastrophe, war, or any other unforeseen or unexpected event that
affects the integrity of this Competition, whether human or mechanical. If the integrity of the
Competition cannot be restored, we may select winners from among all eligible entries received
before we had to cancel, change or suspend the Competition.
If you attempt or we have strong reason to believe that you have compromised the integrity or
the legitimate operation of this Contest by cheating, hacking, creating a bot or other automated
program, or by committing fraud in any way, we may seek damages from you to the full extent
of the law and you may be banned from participation in future Microsoft promotions.
By entering, you acknowledge that we may have developed or commissioned materials similar
or identical to your entry and you waive any claims resulting from any similarities to your entry.
Further you understand that we will not restrict work assignments of representatives who have
had access to your entry, and you agree that use of information in our representatives’ unaided
memories in the development or deployment of our products or services does not create
liability for us under this agreement or copyright or trade secret law.
During and after this Competition, your entry may be posted on a public website. We are not
responsible for any unauthorized use of your entry by visitors to this website. We are not
obligated to use your entry for any purpose, even if it has been selected as a winning entry.
Personal data you provide while entering this Competition will be used by Microsoft and/or its
agents and prize fulfillers acting on Microsoft’s behalf only for the administration and operation
of this Competition and in accordance with the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
If you do not want to grant us these rights to your entry, please do not enter this Competition.
GOVERNING LAW
This Competition will be governed by the laws of the State of Washington, and you consent to
the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts of the State of Washington for any disputes
arising out of this Competition.
These Official Rules do not, nor do they purport to, limit, exclude or modify any non-excludable
statutory guarantees as provided under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or any
other warranties (whether express or implied) under any Australian state or federal legislation
which cannot be excluded.
WINNERS LIST
A list of final winners will be published as a blog post by May 30, 2025.