Innovation and entrepreneurship are driving forces of economic growth and social development in today's modern society. 

The WMF, for the tenth year in a row, combines innovation and entrepreneurship, in one of the most important south european initiative to support innovative ideas development and business creation: the WMF Startup Competition.

Aware of the key role of innovation in the development of a sustainable and inclusive future, WMF has, in fact, been creating growth opportunities for startups for over 10 years and has been working to spread an innovative entrepreneurial culture, fostering the development of an ecosystem of innovation - the Innovation Valley - also capable of generating a flow of opportunities between Italy and the world.

If you want to compete and take the opportunity to show your startup to the international world of innovation, you can now apply to the 2023 edition. Call for 2022 in closed.

Candidates will have the unique opportunity to increase visibility and present their projects in front of 24,000 attendees, including some of the most recognized corporation executives, investors, sector experts and innovation ecosystem stakeholders, that can support the implementation and the development of their business ideas.

6 startups will join the final, while other 36 startups will be selected to enter the Startup Stage 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, Yape, Isaac, lightScience and Flowpay, as well as Recornea and MyLeg the winning projects of the 2021 Startup Competition. The overall value of the prizes offered was over 2 million euros, for a total of more than 3,300 startup candidates during the previous editions.

The call for the Startup Competition 2022 is now closed. You can apply for the next edition.

The call is dedicated to startups and businesses - made up of individuals or teams - with innovative projects or ideas. Once the call is closed, and the canidates valuated, 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 attendees at WMF2022 in Rimini Expo Centre and Online from june 16th to 18th. 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;
• Completeness of the documentation presented.

The WMF encourages and supports the development of innovative entrepreneurial projects also capable of producing a positive influence on the environment and society.
For this reason, the WMF Startup Competition gives the opportunities to the applying startups to indicate specific challenges of the future that they are preparing to tackle in an innovative way:

• Cities & Communities
• Health
• Work
• Culture & Travel
• Food & Agriculture
• Learning & Education
• Retail & Customer Experience
• Marketing
• Media & Entertainment
• Sports & Events
• Finance & Insurance
• Life On Planet Earth
• Others chellenges

During the application, startups can also indicate if and in what measure they adhere to the ESG policies (Environmental, Social, Governance) as well as the impact generated by their innovative project on 1 ore many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals indicated by the UN 2030 Agenda.

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

Apply now to present your startup at the 2023 edition of WMF - We Make Future