📝 Note from the editor: Looking for more funding opportunities to grow your enterprise or project to a whole new level?
Check out our overview of great funding opportunities to support your venture in 2021!
Are you looking for an opportunity to put your startup in the spotlight?
Prepare your pitch and grab your 17 opportunities to gain international recognition, funding and other benefits to growing your venture!
The opportunities that are available in the upcoming months have been sorted in chronological order below.
🎤17 pitching opportunities for startups to attract investors in 2021
1. EMERGE Startups Pitching Competition
Deadline: April 20 | Apply here
Eligibility: Early-stage startups
Prize:€10,000,-
EMERGE Challenge is an online pitching competition for early-stage startups that raised up to €250K in funding and have a global product. The winner will receive a €10,000 cash prize.
2. Extreme Tech Challenge
Deadline: April 25 | Apply here
Eligibility: Any startup building technologies that address social or environmental challenges should apply.
Prizes: The top global three finalists will be awarded a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) note, with the first-place winner receiving $1,000,000, the second-place winner receiving $250,000, and the third-place winner receiving $100,000
3. South Summit Startup Competition
Deadline: April 27 | Apply here
Eligibility: The most innovative startups regardless their industry, development stage and country
Prizes: Free tickets and the opportunity to share their project in front of a top level jury with top notch investors and leading corporates and gain a global reach visibility provided by the digital context
South Summit Startup Competition is an excellent showcase to provide more visibility to your project, get new clients, funding, or achieve strategic partnerships. In this edition, all the finalist startups will pitch remotely.
4. Arch Grants Startup Competition
Deadline: April 30 | Apply here
Eligibility: Founders with idea stage to pre-Series A companies
Prizes: $50,000 equity-free funding + $10,000 for relocation. Eligibility for additional funding of up to $100,000 as your company grows.
The Arch Grants Startup Competition awards innovative, scalable, and job-creating startups with $50,000 non-dilutive grants and access to an ecosystem of resources in exchange for headquartering their business in St. Louis for at least one year.
5. SelectUSA Tech Startup Pitch Sessions
Deadline: April 30 | Apply here
Eligibility: Early-stage and startup tech companies; less than 8 years old, up to $10 million in revenue and up to 40 employees
Early-stage and startup tech companies can apply to make their virtual pitch in front of an audience of Investment Summit attendees and a panel of 4-6 judges, including venture capitalists, corporate investors, representatives from startup ecosystems, and industry experts.
6. Hottest Remote Work Startup Contest
Deadline: May 10 | Apply here
Eligibility: To participate in the pitch competition, your startup must be less than two years old and offer a remote work industry solution.
Prize: $25K Investment prize
Apply for the Remote Work Startup Pitch competition and accelerate your growth!
7. Inventures Startup Pitch Event
Deadline:May 14 | Apply here
Eligibility: Companies must have launched/be planning to launch their product or service within 24 months of September 2021; Companies must not have raised more than $10 million in funding
Prize: Cash prize
Connect with entrepreneurs, startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) seeking partners, advisors and capital. Inventures is a one-stop opportunity to assess fast-growing players and discover investment gems!
8. Unicorn Pitches Russia
Deadline: May 28 | Apply here
Eligibility: Startups with outstanding solution
Join the World Largest Startup Pitch Contest where famous international VCs and Business Angels meet extraordinary startups from all over the world.
The winner of Unicorn Pitches Russia will be presenting the region at the Unicorn Battle in Eastern Europe after will have a chance to apply for Unicorn Cup Finals!
9. INSURY Startup Award
Deadline: May 31 | Apply here
Eligibility: The company was founded after 1st Jan 2017
Application fee: 490€ (excl. VAT) – to pay only, if you are nominated!
10. X-Pitch
Deadline: May 31 | Apply here
Eligibility:Startups less than 5 years old, between Pre-seed and Pre-A stages (Received less than US$1 million in funding to date); Technology areas: 5G / Edge Computing / AI / Blockchain / Next-gen Computing
Prize: Top 3 teams of X-Pitch 2021 win up to US$1,000,000 investment
X-Pitch is the “X Games” of startup competition, contestants go through the 15-sec, 60-sec and 3-min pitch all the way to win investment & cash prizes.
This is not just a challenge, but also an excellent opportunity to improve presentation skills and to know your business better, enabling you to convey concise messages to investors and target audience in a short time.
11. sTARTUp Pitching
Deadline: May 31 | Apply here
Eligibility: Early-stage to scale-up startups who are looking to raise funds. Preferred applicants have a strong mission and a scalable business model. Your startup should have a functioning product with traction/feedback, a strong team and be ready for an investment.
Prizes: Up to €200k investment from EstBAN-led syndicate; €10k equity-free cash from Swedbank; €5k worth legal counseling by Sorainen; $10k AWS service credits from Cloudvisor; 30k worth of prizes from Founderly; mentoring sessions and workspace
Startups – this is your chance to shine in front of 4000 attendees from all over the world: potential investors, clients, partners and international media. That’s not all! Far from it. In addition to visibility, the best startups will be listed among the best in the region and be awarded unbelievable prizes!
12. Techcrunch Startup Battlefield
Deadline: June TBA | Apply here
Eligibility: Early-stage companies from all geographies, in any industry. Startups should have an MVP.
Prize: A $100,000 equity-free prize
Startup Battlefield brings the world’s top early-stage startups together on one stage to compete for equity-free prize money and the attention of media and investors worldwide.
About 25 startups will be selected to pitch on the main stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021.
13. Start-up Slams
Deadline: September 30 | Apply here
Eligibility: Start-ups seeking to raise a seed or a Series A financing round
Prize: Funding
The Start-up Slams are a great opportunity for young companies (and particularly start-ups seeking to raise a seed or a Series A financing round) to showcase their project in front of potential partners and investors in the Life Sciences field.
14. U.PITCH
Deadline: Applications will open in the fall of 2021 | Get notified
Eligibility: You must be currently enrolled as a college student or have graduated from an undergraduate or graduate program within the past six months to compete in U.Pitch.
Prize: A piece of $10,000
At U.Pitch, all it takes is 90 seconds. 90 seconds to go from “just an idea” to an idea that’s been reviewed by top talent in the startup ecosystem, validated, and ultimately awarded a piece of $10,000. Ready to change your life in 90 seconds?
15. Web Summit Startup Programme
Deadline: TBA | Apply here
Eligibility: PITCH is open to startup attendees at Web Summit that have received under €3 million in funding to date.
Application fee: EUR 995,-
Web Summit Startup Programme offers you the chance to join a global community of startups, each one selected by the Web Summit team for its potential, uniqueness and world-changing ideas.
If chosen, you’ll get three tickets to Web Summit for €995, access to Investor Meetings, and be eligible to apply for PITCH, 40 words, pitching masterclasses and more.
16. StartUp Lehigh Valley Pitch Competition
Deadline: TBA | Get notified
Eligibility: Entrepreneurs based in and around the Lehigh Valley
Prize: $10,000 in prizes
17. P5 Pitch Competition Series for Female Founders
Deadline: TBA | Appy here
Eligibility: Registered venture (LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp) with the majority of shares owned by a woman or women co-founders
Prize: Over $20,000 in cash and prizes
Submit your business totally free for a chance to pitch live at one of the quarterly virtual pitch competitions and compete for a $5,000 cash prize!
Winners of the virtual competitions will have the opportunity to pitch in-person, live to a celebrity panel of judges at the annual P5 Women’s Summit, August 15-17, 2021 in Madison, Wisconsin for a chance to win over $20,000 in cash and prizes!
🎁 Bonus opportunity
18. BGV Pitch Competition
Deadline: January 1, 2022 | Apply here
Eligibility: Black/Brown woman-identifying founders
Prize: TBA
The BGV Pitch Competition is crowdfunding meets pitch competition. The audience votes with their dollars via our tech platform to determine the winner. The person with the most votes wins (not the most money raised).
Each founder has 3 minutes to pitch and a 3 minute Q&A from the audience. The audience votes using the SheRaise platform and the winners are chosen.
🤓 Which of these opportunities are you going to apply for first? Let us know in the comments below or fill in the contact form or drop us a line on our social media channels!
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