Entrepreneurship World Cup Startup Pitch Competition – Apply Now!

EWC is more than just a competition, though. Hundreds of coaching and training hours have been delivered, along with high-value entrepreneurship programs tailored to all three participating stages in the World Cup. The network you build throughout this journey offer invaluable guidance and support to catapult your company toward its growth objectives. All entrepreneurs are welcome.

Categories

EWC Global, in the application review, reserves the right to recategorize an applicant’s self-reported Stage classification.

• Idea Stage
  • Self-Funding and Conceptual: Your company (or concept) is self-funding directly from founders + family/friends to build a prototype or initiate business operations (No Revenue)
  • Unregistered Entity: Your company has not been legally registered as a legal entity and is building a business plan as a pathway to initiate business activities (No Revenue)
  • Registered Entity/No Prototype: Your company could be recently legally registered but does not have an MVP or commercially viable product (No Revenue)
  • Registered Entity/Prototyping: Your company could be registered and is actively working to develop an MVP (No Revenue)
  • Aspiring Entrepreneur: You work on a university research project that will turn into a company (tech spin-off)
• Early Stage
  • Seeking Validation: Your company has commercially viable MVP that is seeking early user/customer validation in the market (Nascent Revenue)
  • Seeking Early Funding: Your company is ready for (or actively seeking) its first equity investment
  • Early Signs of Growth: Your company shows early evidence of market validation and evidence of business growth in your home market (Generating Revenue)
  • Early Equity Funding: Your company successfully earned seed / angel funding and preparing for Series-A funding
  • Early International Sales: Your company shows signs of international sales but development is still nascent
  • Nascent Bootstrapping: Your company shows evidence of small organic growth and is not seeking equity fundraising (bootstrapping)
  • Steps Toward Governance: Your company is Intent or starting to develop a board of directors
  • Creating Departments: Your company is growing and there is movement to hiring company executives (part-time or full-time) relieving the CEO/Founder from some parts of the company’s operations
• Growth Stage
  • Consistent Growth: Your company shows evidence of strong local market validation with consistent growth for at least three years
  • Defined Departments: Your company developed an operating structure containing departments with a settled executive team that has clear department hiring standards
  • Strong Governance: Your company has an active and engaged board of directors
  • Repeatable: Your company shows clear evidence of a repeatable business model that has predictable recurring sales in multiple markets
  • Equity Fundraising for Scalability: Your company successfully closed a Series-A (or beyond) round
  • Evergreen: Your company can prove strong organic growth without fundraising (you are bootstrapping)
  • Exit-Ready: Your company has reached its growth limit or plateau and you are exit-ready (seeking acquisition or private equity)

Phases of Participation

• Phase 1: Registration
  • Applicants are on-boarded automatically by the competition website and segmented into appropriate categories based on their stage: Idea, Early, Growth.
• Phase 2: EWC Qualifiers
  • All registered participants compete against one another in a Global Pool to identify the most-promising startups among each of the three stages. Up to 250 contestants advance past the EWC Qualifiers to the EWC Group Stage in Phase 3.
• Phase 3: Bootcamp + EWC Group Stage
  • All EWC Group Stage contestants are invited to participate in a structured virtual bootcamp comprising one cohort organized by Idea Stage, Early Stage and Growth stage. Teams participate in a cohort-level workshop and mentorship sessions designed to explore unique challenges, uncover applicable solutions and refine their pitch and presentation.
  • EWC Group Stage contestants are evaluated at the discretion of EWC judging committee(s) based on the results of due diligence and other factors tied to the Bootcamp. The top 100 are selected as the “EWC 100” Global Finalists.
• Phase 4: Global Finals
  • The EWC 100 are invited to compete in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the EWC Global Finals for prizes including a share of USD $1 million.

Eligibility Criteria

• There is no entry fee.
• Any startup from around the world is welcome to apply and become an Applicant.
• Applicant startups must be legally registered or planning to register in their country of residence.
• Applicant startups must be ten years or less old by the date of the Global Finals. Entity age is set by the date of company registration and not idea conception.
• EWC Global Winners who won cash prizes during previous editions of the EWC Global Finals (2019-2023) are eligible to participate again in 2024 with certain candidacy considerations for future would-be prizes:
  • EWC Applicants can only be eligible for different prize categories than the prize they earned during previous participation in the competition.
    • Only EWC Grand Prize winners (first place overall) are ineligible to participate as applicant candidates for EWC 2024.
    • Any past second through fifth place winners and/or category winners are eligible and encouraged to apply, but cannot compete for the same placement.
• Employees of the organizers, its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising, promotional agencies, suppliers and immediate family members are not eligible to participate in the competition.

Criteria

• The applicant team member representing the company must be 18 years old at the time of submission.
• If an aspiring applicant does not meet the minimum age criteria but has an idea or registered company that wants to be considered for admission into the competition, the following provisions must hold:
  • A parent or legal guardian must act as a co-applicant.
  • The parent or legal guardian of the applicant must consent to all EWC participation and provisions in representation of their child.
  • The applicant acknowledges that if selected to participate in the EWC Global Finals, both the applicant and the parent or legal guardian will travel as company representatives.
  • The parent or legal guardian, and applicant, must conform to all visa requirements and entry processes to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• Application submissions must be the original work solely of the participating company.
• Only completed applications meeting competition deadlines will be considered.
• English is the only official language of the EWC at the global level- this includes all virtual and live public facing pitching opportunities, the Global Finals event, and bootcamps and/or training experiences.
  • Applications must be completed and submitted in English.
  • Non-English-speaking applicants are welcome to apply, but must disclose at least one (1) English speaking team member that can serve as its company representative.

For more information, visit Global Entrepreneurship Network.