Startup Competition Young

Entrepreneurship is a pivotal factor in a country's economic and social growth. This is the reason why every year WMF organizes the Startup Competition Young, a competition aiming at promoting entrepreneurial culture among younger people and encouraging the development of innovative business ideas to tackle collective social and economical issues.

The call is currently closed and this year, Startup Competition Young is scheduled on June 15, 16, and 17 during WMF 2023. If you have a great, innovative business idea, model, or project that you want to share at the Festival, apply now for the 2024 competition by filling out the form below.

The competition targets students under the age of 22 years old. More than 300 students and over 120 applications were involved in the previous editions. The projects selected had the unique opportunity to pitch their business idea in front of a profiled audience of leading players in the field (incubators, accelerators, Corporate Ventures, etc.) and to win prizes offered by some of our partners, including IBAN, Amazon Web Services and The Hive.

The structure of the call mirrors the WMF Startup Competition.

The call for the Startup Competition Young is currently closed. Finalists will pitch their projects during the WMF at the Rimini Expo Centre, onsite and through the online interactive platform.

Each team will have 3 minutes to convey the key elements of their project. The jury will be given another 3 minutes to ask more detailed questions about the projects. At the end of the presentation, the jury and the audience will place their vote, announcing the winner. 

The call is currently closed, but you can already apply for the next edition filling the form

Participants will be challenging each other with an elevator pitch in front of the WMF audience and a jury of field professionals and experts. The pitch must cover all key elements of the entrepreneurial project.

Find below the guidelines on how correctly structure and deliver your pitch.

> Download support material

Participants must submit an innovative business idea that tackles one or more critical social issues. Each team can choose from one of the following topics:

• Sport and wellness

• Education

• Tourism

• Accessibility services

• Justice

• Employability

• Eldercare services

• Green economy and sustainability

The finalists will be selected according to the following criteria:

• Originality of the idea

• Feasibility of the business idea

• Socio-economic impact and overall sustainability of the project

• Stage of product development

• Degree of innovation and defensibility

• Social relevance of the project