Applications are officially open to participate in the 9th edition of the Startup Competition, organized and promoted by WMF, which also this year is aimed at startups, businesses and innovative projects with the aim of encouraging their growth and visibility in the market.
The final phase of the Competition will be held during the three days of the 2021 edition of WMF, the largest Festival on Digital and Social Innovation, which will return in presence, in the Italian city of Rimini, and online next July 15, 16 and 17. The two previous editions of the festival, held in 2020, totaled more than 24,000 online participants and more than 100 events dedicated to the world of innovation.
The Startup Competition call - which saw the participation of over 700 startups during the last edition - is open to start-ups and companies, composed of individuals or teams, with innovative projects or ideas, offering a wide range of business and networking opportunities. At the close of the call, set for May 22, 2021, six selected start-ups will access the final stage and will be able to compete on the WMF stage to present their pitch and business idea in front of the major players in the industry and the entire audience. The finalist start-ups will be voted by the connected audience and evaluated by a jury composed of representatives of the most relevant realities of the innovative ecosystem, including venture capital, investors, corporate partners, stakeholders and important companies.
As in previous editions - where more than 150 partners and investors awarded prizes worth a total of more than €1.6 million - this year the Startup Competition partners will once again provide prizes, acceleration paths and various opportunities. I3P is once again pleased to participate in the initiative by offering a 6-month virtual incubation as its prize: a unique opportunity to take advantage of the strategic consulting, coaching, mentoring and fundraising support services offered by the Innovative Companies Incubator of the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy.
“Even before the opening of the call, we registered more than 120 applications to participate in the next Startup Competition: this says a lot about the current ferment in the Italian and European entrepreneurial ecosystem, within which WMF has been operating for years as an accelerator of innovation and opportunities for the growth of new ideas and companies”, explained Cosmano Lombardo, Chairman and Founder of WMF. “This year, the initiative has been further enriched thanks to new partners of excellence and to the creation of an international network dedicated to start-ups involving several European countries.”
All the information to participate in the Startup Competition, the materials available and the selection criteria in detail are available on the dedicated web page on the website of the initiative.
