Entrepreneurship constitutes one of the key factors in the economic and social development of a country. This is the reason why, every year, WMF organises the Startup Competition Young, an initiative that promotes entrepreneurial culture among young people and encourages the creation of innovative business ideas to solve high impact social issues.

This challenge has been designed for students under the age of 22 years old. Over the past editions, more than 260 students and  over 100 applications were involved in the competition.

The finalists, in the past editions, had the unique opportunity to present their projects in front of the major players in the field (incubators, accelerators, Corporate Ventures etc.) and a chance to win prizes offered by some of our partners, including IBAN, Amazon Web Services and The Hive.

The structure of the Call is very similar to the Startup Competition for adults. The Call in now open and will be closing on may 12.

Finalists will be announced on may 20 and will present their projects during the WMF onsite and online event.

Each team will have 3 minutes to present the key elements of their project. The jury will have another 3 minutes to ask for further information and clarification. At the end of the presentations, the jury and the public will place their vote and announce the winner. 

To participate in the Startup Competition Young 2021, submit your entrepreneurial idea by filling out the form below.

Read the instructions

Participants will be challenged to pitch their idea to a jury of experts as well as the festival audience. The presentation must cover all the key elements of the entrepreneurial project.

Please find below the guideline to correctly structure your pitch.

> Download support material

Participants must put forward an innovative business idea that tackles a critical social issue. Each team can choose from one of the following topics:

• Sport and wellness
• Education
• Tourism
• Services for disabled people
• Legality
• Employability
• Services for the elderly
• Green and sustainability

The finalist projects will be selected according to the following criteria:

• Originality of the idea; 
• Feasibility of the business idea; 
• Socio-economic impact and sustainability of the project; 
• Stage of product development; 
• Degree of innovation and defensibility of the same; 
• Social relevance of the project.