SAN FRANCISCO, July 24 (Xinhua) -- About 300 U.S. companies will gather in Seattle on Friday for a preliminary round of a nationwide competition on tech innovation, organizers said Tuesday.

The companies, selected from nearly 1,000 U.S. candidate firms, will compete for cash prizes and business expansion opportunities in China at the semifinals of the 2018 InnoSTARS Competition scheduled for September this year. The grand finale is to take place in China on Nov. 11.

The event was organized by the U.S.-China Innovation Alliance (UCIA), a Houston, Texas-based technology advancement nonprofit, and its Chinese partner, the Convention on Exchange of Overseas Talents and Guangzhou Convention of Overseas Chinese Scholars in Science and Technology (OCS), a high-level official platform. VestLink, a leading player in the U.S.-China cross-border investment space in Seattle, also provided support.

Winners of the competition will be offered a free field trip to China where they will have opportunities to meet their business partners and investors.

More preliminary contests will also be held in other U.S. cities such as Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco and Boston.

"China is actually an easier place to start for some of us entrepreneurs. As a country, it is moving very fast and you will want to be there," said Freidoon Rastegar, CEO of Solid State Battery, a participating company at the InnoSTARS Competition.