The Shengjing Global Innovation Awards 2016, which aims to discover and encourage innovative projects and startup teams, was launched in Beijing on Jan 7.

The awards were initiated last year.

The competition is hosted by Chinese company Shengjing360.com, one of China's leading innovation and startup service platforms, jointly with international organizations including the Silicon Valley Startup founder and investor platform F50, Israeli venture capital organization JVP and German company Deutsche Telekom.

The competition intends to become a global service platform for innovators.

Shengjing 360 will provide $1.5 million in cash prizes to 21 winners, with no equity return required from them.

Meanwhile, the company has jointly established a special foundation with investors, including Tsinghua Holdings, for the awards. The foundation will invest $25 million in promising competitors.

Incubators and venture capitalists involved in the competition are expected to invest $150 million jointly, according to the organizer.

The competition attracted more than 3,000 innovative and startup projects in 2015.

Last year's champion DiaCardio, a mobile digital healthcare company from Israel, shared its experience of taking part in the competition during the launch of this year's contest.

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