Startup World Cup
$1 million global pitch competition
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St. Louis selected for 2025 Startup World Cup
The Startup World Cup is the largest global startup conference and pitch competition where 70+ cities send their champion team to the San Francisco Grand Finale, to compete for a $1,000,000 investment prize.
St. Louis Competition:
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Feb 19: Applications open for tech-based or tech-enabled startups operating in the St. Louis Metro
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March 3: Applications due for 2025 Competitions
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March 7: Startups notified of selection decision
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March 31 – April 3: 100 Startups will compete in 10 live pitch competitions during STL TechWeek
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April 4: STL TechWeek Closing Ceremony announces the top ten winners from the refional semi-finals
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Summer 2025: Top 10 winners compete in the St. Louis regional finals
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Fall 2025: Winning startup competes in the Grand Finale in Silicon Valley for an investment prize of $1 Million
Regional Companies
Semi-Final Competitions
St. Louis Champion
Grand Finale Prize
Applications are Open Feb 19 – March 3
Startups are able to apply for both the Startup World Cup competition and the 6-week intensive workshop series, Velocity, which begins on March 10th. Sponsored by Fidelity and facilitated by our partners, Vikram Lakhwara and Danielle Deavens of Stakehouse Fund at The Wedge in Alton, Illinois, Velocity is a six-week program designed to reinforce startup fundamentals founders will need to grow their businesses.
Attend the 10 Pitch Competitions – Hosted during STL TechWeek
The 100 St. Louis startups will compete in a live pitch competition during STL TechWeek, with the ten winners announced on April 4th at the FWD / STL Closing Ceremony. Events are free and open to the public.
Startup World Cup Expo & 10 Winners Announced on April 4th
“This Platform is for Startups and Startup Ecosystems of the World.”Â
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The 2024 St. Louis Regional Competition
STEP 1: VIDEO PITCH OR DECK
To enter the Regional Competition, St. Louis based businesses can submit a 1 minute long video pitch, describing the unique value of the business to then be voted on by the community at large. Video applications will be accepted on April 12, 2024 at 5:00 PM until April 26, 2024 at 5:00 PM. Businesses may submit a 10-page pitch deck instead of or in addition to the videos. Decks will not be made public and will be reviewed by our panel of judges.
STEP 2: selecting the top 100
Video pitches will be posted on the public voting platform for the community to vote from April 29, 2024 at 8 AM until May 3, 2024 at 11:59 PM. Participating businesses will be encouraged to promote their video pitch to encourage the community to submit votes. The 5 videos with the most amount of votes will automatically be given a seat in the top 100. The remaining 95 spots will be selected privately from the pitch decks.
STEP 3: SEMI-FINAL COMPETITIONS
The top 100 companies will be selected to compete in the 10 Semi-Final Competitions during the Summer of 2024. The Competitions will be organized around the 10 Industries, with 10 companies competing at each event. The company receiving the highest score from the judges at each preliminary competition, will be selected to compete in the Final Regional Competition, to reach the top 10.
STEP 4: FINAL COMPETITION
On September 9, St. Louis will host the Final Competition where the 10 winning companies will face off to determine the one Regional Champion. All 10 companies will have the chance to pitch to a panel of judges and the highest scoring founder will be selected to represent St. Louis at the Startup World Cup in San Francisco, however, all 10 companies will have the chance to attend the October 2-4 event.