Your chance for a spotlight
Fifty Founders Battle is TechChill’s annual pitch competition for early-stage startups. Fifty of the most promising startups from across the Baltics, Nordics, Central and Western European regions as well as the rest of the world will be selected among all participants. Each semi-finalist will then have the opportunity to present their business idea on TechChill’s stage in front of over 200 investors and other attendees.
How we pick the lucky 50
All eligible applications will be evaluated by VCs, accelerators, angel investors, and industry experts. In the first phase, the evaluators will focus on the business idea, its scalability, the team behind it, and the overall quality of the application.
The fifty companies with the highest average scores will receive a confirmation. So.. channel your inner Jason Bourne and stay alert.
You should know these dates
🥊 Application launch: January 2023
🥊 Top 50 announced: April 2023
🥊 Fifty Founders Bootcamp: 26 April 2023
🥊 Semi-Finals: 27 April 2023
🥊 Final showdown: 28 April 2023
Got Qs?
Still unclear about something? Feel free to reach out to either Laila (laila@techchill.co).
Stage & Previous funding
🥊 Your startup has not received more than 250k EUR in exchange for equity. Grants are fine.
🥊 Most likely, the company is not older than 3 years, but there could be exceptions.
Marketplaces, deeptech, and anything between
The 2023 competition is sector-agnostic. What it means in practice is that the applications are open to everyone regardless of their represented industry. The fifty best startups will then be split into five groups which make the most sense.
No country restrictions
You’re welcome to apply regardless of where you are based. We usually get applications from more than 30 countries.
HOWEVER, we highly prefer the ability to join the event in-person so you can pitch live. Not a dealbreaker, but just something to consider.
10 000 EUR, no strings attached
This is the big one. Win the whole thing and bring home 10 000 EUR with no strings attached. So many things you can do with it:
– Cover your rent for a few months.
– Buy around 40 000 bananas.
– Buy a jpeg of a monke.
– Take your team on a workation.
Draper University Hero Program tuition.
Two finalists will receive a full tuition for Hero Training, an intensive, immersive five-week entrepreneurship program in Silicon Valley, CA. Their amazing alumni from 100+ countries have raised $450M+ in investment, have created 5000+ jobs and most importantly, have built a life-long bond with their fellow DraperU heroes.
1 ETH from Gravity Team
Our friends from Gravity Team will give 1 ETH (worth around 2.5k EUR) to one of the startups that catches their eye the most.
Up to 10k worth of AWS credits
Make it to the finals and you can treat your business with up to 10k worth of AWS credits. Qualify for the competition and dip your toe in the AWS credits for a smaller amount.*
*The amount of credits you can receive depends on AWS general rules and the number of credits received in the past.
Miro credits
Make it to the semi-finals and you can get Miro credits worth 1500USD. Make it into the finals and open doors to even more credits.
and more...
This is it for now but by the time the competition arrives, expect the list to be much longer. Some things you can expect:
– Angel syndicate investment
– Advertising/marketing credits with social/traditional media
2022: Vocal Image
Founded in 2021, Vocal Image develops a speech training and voice therapy app for speakers and singers. The AI-powered personal training plan can help users improve their voice, empower speaking skills, and heal speech disorders.
2021: Longenesis
Longenesis is a B2B startup offering a platform to biomedical organizations to reduce the length of clinical trials. This is done through enabling direct communication for safe data curation and compliant, consent-enabled biomedical data utilization for research. Shortly after bringing home the prize, Longenesis raised EUR 1M in seed funding. Coincidence? Maybe..maybe not.
2020: Woola
Woola makes protective packaging made of leftover wool, bio-based binder and, in case of the Wool Envelope, recycled paper — which are all biodegradable materials. Even if they end up in nature or in landfill, they’ll eventually break down into biomass, CO2 and water, without leaving any microplastics behind. In December 2021, Woola raised a €2.5M seed round led by Future Ventures to continue their journey of replacing plastic bubble wrap with wool.
2019: Precision Navigation Systems
Precision Navigation Systems create hardware and software solutions that help companies and governments build sustainable ground-based GNSS infrastructure. For land-surveying, precision agriculture, mining, construction, autonomous vehicles, and drones. Most recently the startup launched Stargate RTK, which provides quick access to worldwide GPS RTK coverage through a single interface.
2018: Anatomy Next
Anatomy Next is a human body simulator for medical training in virtual reality. They’re on a mission to help students learn anatomy faster and more efficiently. Since winning TechChill’s 2018 pitch battle, the startup has expanded its operations across the United States. Most recently, the startup launched Anatomy.app, an online digital anatomy training platform for medical students, students in the health professions, and medical educational institutions.
2017: SprayPrinter
SprayPrinter channel art through technology by printing murals using spray paint and robots. Since winning the 2017 pitch battle, the Estonian startup has moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Nowadays, the company is known under the name Robot Muralist and offers robots – Albert and Leonardo.
2016: Nordigen
Nordigen is a global account data analytics provider. Since winning the 2016 Pitch Battle, Nordigen has gone become one of the leading open banking data platforms and is currently servicing more than 2000 banks in Europe. In 2021, Nordigen raised a 2M EUR seed round from Black Pearls VC, Inventure, and a handful of other VC funds and angels.
2015: Edurio
Edurio believes that in order to improve education, it is critical to understand the unique perspectives and experiences of pupils, their parents and members of staff. Their team of education experts has developed industry-leading research-based survey instruments and a unique data visualisation and analytics platform for schools, Trusts, and international school groups.
2013: Tebo
Tebo allows teachers to organise all their digital teaching items, such as files, links, and exercises in one place and create engaging interactive learning items that students can solve via smart devices. Tebo is used by 11939 teachers and 69850 students in 3520 schools.
