It is widely acknowledged that Innovation and entrepreneurship are driving forces of economic growth and social development in today's modern society.

Every year WMF organizes the largest Startup Competition in Italy: an initiative that aims to combine innovation and entrepreneurship, promoting one of the most important South European initiatives to support innovative ideas, development and business creation.

Apply now to participate in the 2021 Edition of the Startup Competition!

The call is dedicated to startups and businesses - made up of individuals or teams - with innovative projects or ideas. Participants will have the opportunity to increase visibility and make their project known within Italy's biggest innovative projects, presenting it to an audience made up of the major players in the digital sector, investors and experts which may decide to support the realization and growth of the business idea.

6 startups will enter the final, while other startups will be selected to enter the Startup Room and thus present their idea to the public and to the representatives of major incubators and accelerators.

Among the winners of the previous editions are TOMMI, Friendz, JustKnock, FitPrime, Ventur, PatchAI, as well as Yape, Isaac, lightScience and Flowpay, the winning projects of the 2020 Startup Competition. The overall value of the prizes offered was over 1.6 million euros, for a total of more than 2,800 startup candidates during the previous editions.

The ‘elevator pitch’ is a brief presentation where you describe your business venture in a nutshell. A solid elevator pitch needs to convey the business idea in a concise manner, so as to attract the audience's attention quickly.

> Download support material

The call for the Startup Competition 2021 is open.

In the upcoming months the Festival's Innovation Team will announce the 6 startup finalists that will have the opportunity to present their pitch to the jury and the public at WMF2021 in Rimini and Online. Each team will have 3 minutes to present the key elements of their idea. The jury will then have another 2 minutes to ask further questions. Voting and announcing the winning startups will follow, at the end.

> Read the instructions

• Skills of the team, knowledge of the sector, feasibility of the project;
• Development stage of the product/service;
• Degree of innovation and its defensibility;
• Positioning in relation to competitors;
• Consistency with market and customers’ needs and potential outreach;
• Business potential of the idea.