WMF 2023 - One of the Biggest International Startup Competitions!

The WMF, certified International Trade Fair, has been a reference for entrepreneurial culture, igniting opportunities and connections within the international innovation ecosystem, for over 10 years.

During the WMF, the annual appointment with the World Startup Fest takes place - a major event for global startups, scaleups, and investors, which in the past edition registered more than 36,000 attendees and more than 1,300 startups and investors from 49 countries.

Among the many events, the largest International Startup Competition in Southern Europe, now in its 11th edition, witnesses every year the engagement of leading international players from the entrepreneurship and innovation fields.

The finals of the Startup Competition will be held on the Mainstage during WMF 2023, scheduled for June 15-17, and will be streamed worldwide.

Startups will have the opportunity of great visibility and raise awareness on their project within the largest international competitions for innovative projects in Southern Europe, presenting their reality to an audience of major players in the digital sector, investors, entrepreneurs, and experts in the innovation, an audience who may actually decide to support the growth of a great business idea.

From the call for the Startup Competition, 6 startups will be selected to enter the Final on the Mainstage, and another 36 startups will be given a chance to take the Startup Stage, to present their pitch to the audience in attendance, and to representatives of major incubators and accelerators.

In addition, startups selected from the call will have the opportunity to access the following:

• to all the other World Startup Fest events, including B2B meetings with international investors;
• to the Startup District, the exhibition area dedicated to startups from around the world;
• to the WMF International Roadshow, the international project that connects startups and investors from all over the world;
• to the WMF's global network, with the possibility of being involved in related initiatives all year round.

Winners of previous editions include TOMMI, Friendz, PatchAI, FitPrime, Isaac, Yape, light science, FlowPay, Recornea, and MyLeg, as well as Golee and AerariumChain thetwo winning projects of the WMF2022 Startup Competition. The total value of prizes to date has been more than 3.3 million euros, with more than 4,300 startups applying.

Important: 

The WMF encourages and supports the development of innovative entrepreneurial projects also capable of producing a positive influence on the environment and society. For this reason, the WMF Startup Competition gives the opportunities to the applying startups to indicate specific challenges of the future that they are preparing to tackle innovatively, among them: Future of Food & Agriculture and Future of Life On Planet Earth.

During the application, startups can also indicate if and in what measure they adhere to the ESG policies (Environmental, Social, Governance) as well as the impact generated by their innovative project on 1 or many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals indicated by the UN 2030 Agenda.

It will be possible to clarify the compliance to ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) criteria as well as the impact generated by the innovative project on one or more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals outlined in the UN 2030 Agenda.

The call closes on April 2, 2023.

For more information click here.