The Entrepreneurship World Cup is open for 2021 and is accepting applications – aiming to expand past the 175,000 contestants from 200+ countries in its first year. The program offers a chance to pitch on a global stage for a share of US$1 million in cash prizes plus additional investment opportunities and another US$750,000 in in-kind support.
META Group is the official national organizer for Italy, helping entrepreneurs across the country start and scale into the competition.
“Nowadays if entrepreneurs want to succeed, they have to be ready in competing at the international level. For this reason at META Group, we believe that the EWC is a big opportunity for all the innovative Italian startups and scaleups, not only for the prizes available but mainly for the global peer network they will join.”
Entrepreneurship World Cup is more than just a global pitch competition with a shot at life-changing prizes. It elevates entrepreneurs from all stages—idea-stage, early-stage, growth-stage or beyond— by providing them with tools and resources to grow their venture.
EWC Accelerates is a virtual training and mentorship program that helps entrepreneurs hone their skills and increase their chances of winning their national competitions – as well as those who advance to the Global Finals.
The EWC online platform also offers all contestants who complete an application, access to more than $25,000 in perks from partners such as Google Cloud, Hubspot, Stripe and more.
The applications for the National phase will close on the 27th June 2021 and the National Finals competition will be held through July 2021.
Applications must be entered on the official platform – entrepreneurshipworldcup.com clicking on the ‘Sign-up now’ button.
In November 2021, 100 startups will be flown to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to participate in the EWC Accelerates program for an intensive startup bootcamp and to compete in the EWC Global Finals.
PatchAi and Prometheus, Italian champions in 2020
Last year, PatchAi and Prometheus were the Italian champions in a contest with more than 100 applicants.
After going through a six-week acceleration phase, both Italian startups were short-listed among the top-100 and got the pass to pitch in the Global Finals.
The Finals were held at the Misk Global Forum from October 18-20. Italian medtech startup PatchAi, with the first empathic virtual assistant for patients enrolled in clinical trials, was announced among the 25 top semifinalist startups in this global competition with strong startups from the entire world. The winner was TurtleTree Labs from Singapore, the first biotech company to create milk sustainably using cell-based technology.