Regional Winners from Around the World Competed for a $1 Million Investment at the Grand Finale in San Francisco
SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 7, 2023 — Months of preparation and pitching by thousands of entrepreneurs around the world came down to ten finalists at the Startup World Cup Grand Finale event on December 1, 2023, at the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco. The event was organized and by Pegasus Tech Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based global venture capital firm. A panel of investors judged the pitches of the ten finalists and ultimately awarded the grand prize – a $1 million investment – to Aillis, a machine-learning based AI company which uses pharyngeal images instead of specimen collected by swab to make accurate and early influenza detection possible. Aillis won the regional Startup World Cup competition in Tokyo, Japan.
Other finalist companies competing for the $1 million investment prize included companies from Thailand, Luxembourg, Korea, Colombia, Georgia, Japan, and Mexico, as well as regional winners from Sacramento and Silicon Valley in the U.S. The ten finalists were chosen in a semi-final competition held on November 29th in San Francisco, during which 52 regional winners from over 30 countries around the world competed for ten finalist slots.
VOINOSIS, representing South Korea took home 2nd place, provides a digital prevention and care service for dementia using voice analysis AI technology. SaveFruit, representing Mexico, took home 3rd place. They are a biotechnology company that develops a post-harvest solution.
Conference and Competition
At the Grand Finale on December 1st, more than 2,000 attendees participated in a conference that included tech luminaries as speakers and a startup competition to become the competition for global champion. Barbara Corcoran, of Shark Tank fame, appeared to share her stories as an entrepreneur and investor. Other speakers included Vinod Khosla, as well as executives of Tesla, Waymo, LinkedIn, Uber, T-Mobile, Roblox, Reddit, and many others.
The competition was judged by a panel of investors, including partners from Norwest Venture Partners, Samsung Ventures, Intel Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Alchemist Accelerator. “The competition this year was extremely intense. We can hear and see their energy and enthusiasm with entrepreneurs from all over the world presenting groundbreaking innovations. We congratulate the Aillis team for their tremendous success and hard work at the Startup World Cup 2023 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 2023 Finalists
SOURCE Pegasus Tech Ventures
