Startup World Cup coming to Cyprus — $1 million grand prize on the line

The largest global pitch competition, Startup World Cup, is making its debut in Cyprus this year, with the application phase for startups commencing on March 25, and entries will be accepted until May 12.

Consequently, the winner of the regional cup will have the opportunity to compete in the San Francisco Grand Finale and potentially win an investment prize from Pegasus Tech Ventures.

Earlier this month, Aivitam Ventures, in collaboration with Pegasus Tech Ventures, announced the launch of the Startup World Cup – the world’s most prestigious pitch competition for startups across all stages, technologies, and industries. Importantly, potential nominees can apply for the pitch competition free of charge until May 12 via the provided link.

The Startup World Cup is a renowned global conference and competition that brings together top startups, VCs, entrepreneurs, and world-class tech CEOs. Regional competitions have been organised in over 50 regions across North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Australia.

This year, for the first time, the Startup World Cup regional finals will take place in Cyprus, gathering over 100 startups from any domain and at any stage.

These startups will compete for an opportunity to pitch in front of prominent VCs and investors, win a prize of $10k, and most significantly, represent Cyprus in the San Francisco Grand Finale on October 2-4, 2024, with the chance to win a $1 million investment prize.

Moreover, participating startups must have an entity and connection with Cyprus that can be verified (e.g., founders or team members from Cyprus). This year, startups from Ukraine are also invited to compete at the Startup World Cup regional finals in Cyprus.

The application process is straightforward:

1) Applicants must fill in the registration form by May 12

2) Describe their startup, and attach a pitch deck to the application

3) Then, wait for the results in their email, while simultaneously gaining access to the networking app to set meetings with mentors, angels, and VC funds

4) Following this, VC funds analytics will analyse the nominees’ profiles and select the top 15

5) Lastly, the selected nominees will participate in an offline pitching contest with an independent jury.

The final pitching and winner selection will take place on May 28 in Limassol during the forthcoming The Future of AI Summit.

This provides startups with the chance to pitch their ideas to global investors, benefit from one-on-one sessions with angels and venture capitalists, and network with top tech professionals from Europe.

The World Cup winner will receive special prizes from the partners and gain widespread coverage and celebration from both global and local media partners.

Dmitry Dosov, GP at Aivitam Ventures, shared his enthusiasm, saying “Cyprus has great potential for developing the startup ecosystem and a bright future with lots of opportunities and resources. The process has already started, but there are so many steps ahead and one of our aims is to help Cyprus in becoming a significant player on the global scene and allowing local startups to grow and get global recognition. Together with our partners, we will give this chance to the participants and help them in this exciting journey.”

Anis Uzzaman, Founder and CEO of Pegasus Tech Ventures, added “We are thrilled to partner up with Aivitam Ventures for the Startup World Cup Cyprus Regional and are delighted by the quality and enthusiasm of the competing startups. Each year we have been able to reach more entrepreneurs in more cities around the world and connect more innovation ecosystems to Silicon Valley and the rest of the world. We hope this partnership creates new valuable opportunities for the competing startups in Cyprus.”