Startup World Cup 2020 to Take Place in Sofia at Global Tech Summit. Invest Sofia Is Joining The Jury.
Startup World Cup, a global startup pitch competition with a $1,000,000 grand investment prize, will return to Bulgaria co-hosted by Global Tech Summit – the leading technology event in Eastern Europe.
At the invitation of the organizers, Nadia Soultanova, Head of Investment and Business Development at Sofia Investment Agency, will join the expert jury of the regional competition.
The jury members in the Bulgarian edition also include Momchil Elenkov (Viber), Vesela Kalacheva (Chair of BAIT), Sinisha Djukic (COO of Bosch Software Innovations), Svetlin Nakov (SoftUni) and other experts in the technology sector, media, entrepreneurs and top managers.
Startups interested in global exposure, mentorship from global investors, and significant prize money are encouraged to apply for any of the Startup World Cup 2020 regional competitions.
The final pitches will take place in Sofia on December 10 in the National Palace of Culture as a part of Global Tech Summit.
The application form will be open until December 6, 2019. All startups can apply directly on the website Startup World Cup Sofia or by email at startup@globalsummit.tech. All the winners of the regional competitions will participate in the Grand Finale in San Francisco on May 22, 2020.
Prior to the Grand Finale in San Francisco, the winners of the regional competitions in Europe will also take part in a continental championship with a chance to win $500,000 investment prize from the local sponsors.
Thousands of startups from all around the world applied to the 2019 competition. Winners from 36 regional events across six continents pitched their startups at the Grand Finale in San Francisco in May 2019. The Vietnamese startup Abivin beat all competitors and took home the $1,000,000 investment prize. Abivin leverages artificial intelligence to drive its logistics optimization platform. The Canadian startup Klue, which provides competitive intelligence software for enterprise sales teams, won the second place. The US-based Sonavi Labs, which develops smart stethoscopes, came in third.
Prior to the Grand Finale in San Francisco, the winners of the regional competitions in Europe participated in a continental championship, the Startup World Cup Summit in Prague. The winner of that competition, Mimbly from Sweden, won a $500,000 investment prize from the local sponsors, Up21 and Air Ventures. Mimbly has developed a cleantech solution for wastewater from laundry, saving money and water, and reducing microplastic pollution.
The local sponsor of Startup World Cup is Innovation Center that offers the only subsidized acceleration program for Eastern European companies in the Silicon Valley.
Startup World Cup is sponsored by a large group of international corporations, accounting and law firms, including Microsoft, SEGA Sammy, EY, Deloitte, Orrick, Wiley Rein, and others. Sponsors support the mission of Startup World Cup to find the most promising startups and connect them with regional and global thought leaders, corporate partners and investors.
Startup World Cup is one of the largest startup competitions worldwide – with startup competition events in over 36 cities around the world, across six continents, and a $1,000,000 grand investment prize. The Startup World Cup competition is organized by Pegasus Tech Ventures, headquartered in Silicon Valley – a global venture capital firm with offices across North America, Europe and Asia.
