Applications are officially open for the 10th edition of the International Startup Competition, one of the many initiatives of the Web Marketing Festival dedicated to the world of start-ups and scale-ups that will meet at the Rimini Fair and online from June 16 to 18, 2022.
The final of Italy's largest startup competition will feature technology and digital projects from around the world and will be held on the WMF Mainstage during the three days of the festival. After the closing of the call on Thursday, May 12, the finalists will bring their innovative project in front of a jury of investors, corporate partners, incubators and venture capitalists, with a pitch to both those present in the room and online. The 6 finalist startups will be voted by the audience and the jury of stakeholders and venture capitalists from the Italian innovation ecosystem.
Among the new features, for startups, there is the possibility to indicate how their business idea can contribute to tackle one or more of the 12 challenges of the future: from Cities & Communities to Learning & Education, passing through Health, Work, Culture & Travel, Food & Agriculture, Retail & Customer Experience, Marketing, Media & Entertainment, Sport & Events, Finance & Insurance, and finally Life On Planet Earth.
Thanks to more than 250 investors, members of the jury and partners, this year too there will be 2 main prizes - one awarded by the public and one by the jury - as well as a series of special prizes in relation to the challenges of the future.
At the Rimini expo, the World Startup Fest will be the great container of events entirely dedicated to the sector, which will make the WMF - on a global level - the hub of the startup universe and which will intercept the future trends of innovation. Sustainable development, social innovation, artificial intelligence and robotics applied to everyday life, these will be just some of the topics that will be discussed on the Startup Stage, the stage where 36 young innovative companies selected by the competition - Italian and foreign - will take turns during the 3 days, which will have the opportunity to present their projects and their business idea in front of investors, companies, incubators and professionals, with numerous prizes and incubation paths to be won.
"The WMF has always been an accelerator of innovation, an engine that puts at the center the country and the construction of a better future together with all the participants of public life. The last years have made us understand, this time perhaps more than others, that cooperation, networking and dialectical exchange of ideas and projects is the pillar to solve the great global challenges and to look with confidence to the future," explained Cosmano Lombardo, CEO of Search On and creator of the WMF. "For this reason, the WMF - and the World Startup Fest - wants to be both a reference point for Italian and international entrepreneurship, and a container of events dedicated to the world of start-ups and scale-ups, to promote the meeting, the growth of innovative ideas and social entrepreneurship."
All information on how to participate in the Startup Competition, the materials available and the selection criteria in detail are available on the dedicated web page on the initiative's website.