SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 8, 2024 - On October 4, 2024, ten startup company finalists, chosen from thousands of startups around the world, pitched in front of a panel of Silicon Valley venture capital investor judges for a $1 Million prize. After careful deliberation, the judges awarded the prize to EarthGrid PBC, a public benefit corporation based in San Francisco that has developed a patented plasma tunnel-boring technology to enable the U.S. and other countries to fix their electricity transmission grids.
The event was the Grand Finale of the 2024 edition of the Startup World Cup, a global competition organized by Pegasus Tech Ventures. The Startup World Cup annual competition was launched by Pegasus in 2016 and has since become the largest startup competition on the planet, with competitions in approximately 100 cities around the world. This year's Grand Finale was held at the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco, with over 2,500 attendees cheering on the entrepreneurs and listening to a series of fireside chats and panel discussions with tech luminaries in between the pitches.
Other finalist companies competing for the $1 Million investment prize included companies from Vietnam, Israel, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, and the U.S. The ten finalists were chosen in a semi-final competition held on October 2nd in San Francisco, during which 84 regional winners from approximately 50 countries across six continents around the world competed for ten finalist slots.
Alterno, representing Vietnam, took home 2nd place. Alterno is dedicated to reducing carbon emissions in the sectors of agriculture, industry, and residential with the company's proprietary thermal storage technology. ivwatch, representing Virginia Beach, USA, took home 3rd place. The company has the only FDA-cleared and CE-marked monitoring technology for detecting problems with IV sites in patients.
Conference and Competition
The Grand Finale on October 4th was a conference and a competition. Speakers included Robert Herjavec, of Shark Tank fame, as well as famed venture capitalist Tim Draper, and senior executives from Salesforce, IBM, NVIDIA, Tinder, Instacart, Roblox, and several others.
The competition was judged by a panel of investors, including partners from NEA, Samsung Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and many others. "The competition this year was extremely intense and filled with so much adrenaline. Startups were fighting hard to get the Top 10 slot. We can hear and see their energy and enthusiasm with entrepreneurs from all over the world presenting groundbreaking innovations. We are so proud of the champion, and we congratulate the EarthGrid PBC team for their hard work at the Startup World Cup 2024 Grand Finale," said Anis Uzzaman, Founder and CEO of Pegasus Tech Ventures and Chairman of Startup World Cup. "This year's competition proved once again that innovation has no boundary. A successful startup can be founded anywhere in the world and still compete at the global level. This paves the way for all startups in every corner of the world. We encourage them to persevere and take risks without hesitation."
For photos of the event, please click here.
About Pegasus Tech Ventures
Pegasus Tech Ventures is a global venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley with over $2 Billion in Assets Under Management. Pegasus offers intellectual and financial capital to emerging technology companies around the world. In addition to offering institutional investors a top-tier venture capital investment approach, Pegasus also offers a unique Venture Capital-as-a-Service (VCaaS) model for large, global corporations that wish to partner with cutting-edge technology startups. Some of the 35+ corporate partners that have partnered with Pegasus include SEGA, ASUS, AISIN, Niterra, and Sojitz. These corporations are able to have access to 260+ Pegasus portfolio companies such as SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), SoFi, Airbnb, Color, Robinhood, and many more.
For more information about Pegasus Tech Ventures, please visit https://www.pegasustechventures.com.
About Startup World Cup
Startup World Cup was created by Pegasus Tech Ventures to celebrate entrepreneurship around the world. Startup World Cup is a global series of conferences and competitions that bring together the top startups, investors, entrepreneurs, media, and tech CEOs around the world. Starting with thousands of applications for regional competitions in approximately 50 countries across six continents, hundreds of selected startups compete for the chance to move onto the Grand Finale event in San Francisco to win a $1 million investment grand prize. Startup World Cup is organized by Pegasus Tech Ventures in partnership with investors and local sponsors.
For more information on the Startup World Cup, please visit https://www.startupworldcup.io.
Startup World Cup 2024 Finalists
EarthGrid PBC (Silicon Valley, USA) - Winner of $1 million investment prize
Fincom (Israel)
ivwatch (Virginia Beach, USA)
PanopticAI Limited (Hong Kong)
Galena Innovations (Idaho, USA)
Alterno (Vietnam)
Nanowear (New York, USA)
Heralbony (Kyoto, Japan)
Learnexperts (Ottawa, Canada)
Carbon Reform (Philadelphia, USA)
SOURCE Pegasus Tech Ventures
