WHU MBA Students Compete in the VCIC

Negotiating with founders, valuing start-ups and making independent investment decisions: at the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), students come closer to the day-to-day work of a venture capital investor than ever before. This year in March, a six-member team from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management consisting of Lisa Emme (OMBA 2027), Caterina Guerra (PTMBA 2026), Camilla Leske (FTMBA 2026), Benjamin Schweizer (OMBA 2027), Duke Tam (OMBA 2027) and Frank Wu (FTMBA 2026) took part in the simulation and secured third place at the VCIC Europe South 2026 final in Barcelona. The WHU team thus outperformed numerous other business schools.

“We are particularly proud to have finished in third place because we entered the competition as a comparatively spontaneously assembled team,” said Duke Tam, who represented WHU together with his fellow students. “Some of the other teams participated in this challenge as part of an elective course and even received ECTS credits for it. Our biggest challenge was that we were not familiar with the competition in this format. That is why we are very satisfied with the result.”

Competing under the pseudonym “Cherry,” the WHU team entered the VCIC in early March after winning an internal preliminary round. Forty-eight hours before the start of the actual competition, “Cherry” received pitch decks from three real start-ups. The team analyzed them from a venture capital perspective in order to reach a concrete investment decision. Later, a nine-member jury of finance and venture capital experts evaluated whether they had correctly assessed the market, the founding team, the product and the business and exit potential, and whether they had convincingly presented their term sheet for the financing round.

During the competition, the university teams held in depth discussions with all three start-ups. The jury also observed how the teams acted as investors and what strategic decisions they made. At the end of the VCIC, the teams pitched their investment decision and had to defend the proposed deal in front of the experts. This year’s winner was Cranfield University from the United Kingdom, which thereby qualified for the global final in the United States.

About the Venture Capital Investment Competition

The Venture Capital Investment Competition is the world’s largest practice-oriented venture capital case study challenge for students. Participating teams take on the role of venture capital investors and analyze real start-ups. The focus lies on due diligence, company valuation and the development of investment terms.

Teams negotiate with founders and present their investment decision to a jury of experienced investors. The competition is structured into internal university selection rounds, regional finals and a global final. Its goal is to realistically simulate the entire investment process and to train sound investment decision making skills.