The 25 winners of a startup competition that attracted 2,000 entrants, were announced this week at the Tibco Now conference in San Francisco.

(Tibco Software is a former sponsor of SVW.)

Ten of the winning 25 startups chosen by the judges in the Extreme Tech Challenge competition will head for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January to demo live on stage.

A final winner will be chosen at a February event on the 74 acre Necker Island (above) owned by Sir Richard, in the British Virgin Islands.

The 25 semi-finalists will all receive "infrastructure" support consisting of:

- Access to funding 

- Free infrastructure (web services and hosting) 

- Distribution support 

- Donated office space

-  Free investment banking consultation 

- Donated legal and tax advice