WEBIT Founders Games
WEBIT Founders Games
Since 2009 Founders Games is the world's impact innovation challenge, supporting exponential innovation for a desirable, sustainable and resilient future!
January 19, 2024
We identify, endorse and award globally the high growth companies and their founders who lead the way to achieving the SDGs by creating scalable, sustainable and resilient businesses.
Founders Games is the only global platform powered by the collective intelligence of 250+ late stage VC investors who commit their time to score 3500+ applications from 140+ countries each year. The finalists are selected among the highest ranked companies (scaleups) after 5 rounds in the competition.
Founders Games Ceremony | Webit.Festival Europe 2019
Since 2009 Founders Games has been established as the premier scaleup innovation competition with the world’s biggest funding award of $6.000.000 provided by 750+ investors in the publicly listed company - Webit Investment Network - WIN.
Each year of the competition 3500+ companies from 140+ countries apply.
The best companies of Founders Games 2023 are pitching at the Grand Finals award ceremony on 18 January 2024 in Davos.
Icos Capital
Molten Ventures
Mighty Capital
OTB Ventures
Almaz Capital
Ruya Partners
Webit Foundation
Speedinvest
Mercer
Beringea
Plug and Play ventures
Webit is doing an enormous service.
Eric Schmidt
Co-Founder, Schmidt Futures;
Former CEO, Google
in front of leading global & regional investors
The 12th annual Founders Games competition in 2023 will bring together the best founders, the world's top investors, corporate leaders and media to identify and endorse the cutting edge innovations and impact entrepreneurs globally.
Fill in your company details
in the application form.
The criteria against which companies are evaluated in 5 rounds include:
Read more
The award investment is provided by Dr. Plamen Russev (chairman of Webit.Foundation, investor and serial entrepreneur) and prominent business angels.
Тhe form in which the investment will be paid is negotiable. It could be a convertible loan, which will convert into shares of preferred stock upon the closing of a next equity financing (Series A/B round of financing) at market terms for such an instrument. It could be in a bridge round or other solution in favour of the founders. The award may also also fund a pre-IPO investment round.
Participating in Founders Games grants the organizers the right to invest up to $5M in a single one or more startup finalists.
The criteria against which companies are evaluated in 5 rounds include:
1. IMPACT FACTOR
(SDG Compliance)
What impact the success of the company would have on achieving one or more of the 17 SDGs
2. UNIQUENESS
OF THE IDEA
To what extent the idea is unique and constitutes intellectual property (IP)
3. TEAM
CAPACITY
Team experience, successful previous projects, ability to complete the project, human capital.
4. BUSINESS MODEL, SCALABILITY
AND MARKET ADOPTION
Market adoption, growth potential, how long does it take for the market to understand and adopt the product/service (timing), marketing approach and success stories, business model and business development, revenue growth.
5. FUNDING
& FINANCES
Availability of financing and capacity to achieve the development of the product/service roadmap, team, marketing, growth and adaptation
6. LEADERSHIP AND PERSONAL
QUALITIES OF THE TEAM
Leading by example and potential for being a role model for other founder to work for achieving the SDGs.
The winter grand finale award ceremony (with up to $6M equity award) of the world's premier growth stage competition Founders Games and the official cocktail reception by Webit took place in January 2023 in Davos.
The startups which participated in the previous 2 editions and were among the finalists have grown exponentially with an average increase of their invested capital by 6.9 times! Many have oversubscribed their investment round almost immediately after their participation in the Founders Games.
| Startup | Domain | Funding before Webit | Total Funding after Webit | ||
| Wefarm | Food / agriculture | $9,7M Grant + Seed | $34.2M Series A | Pitch video | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TestCard | Health | $2.5M | $30M | Pitch video | Source |
| Sonavi Labs | Health | $1.8M Seed | $4.5M | Pitch video | Source |
| Mediktor | Health | $3M Series A | $15.8M Venture Round | Pitch video | Source |
| Medixine | Health | $3.2M Seed | $7.3M Equity Crowdfunding | Pitch video | Source |
| Elemeno Health | Health | $4M Seed | $7M | Pitch video | Source |
| Keyless | Cyber Security | $2.5M Pre Seed | $9.5M Seed Round | Pitch video | Source |
| Lightyear | Transport / Energy | $28M Series A | $110M Venture Round | Pitch video | Source |
| UAT (United Aircraft Technologies) | Transport/aviation | $530K Pre Seed | $1.9M Seed | Pitch video | Source |
| Bloom Biorenewables | Green energy | $2.5M Seed | €3.9M Seed | Pitch video | Source |
The startup finalists and semi-finalists have had a stellar success after their participation at Webit when being in the beginning of their exponential growth continuing on to today.
VUZ is a leading immersive social app that allows users to stream and experience a new level of immersive realism in XR and Metaverse digital experiences. A few months after pitching on Webit’s stage, the company raised its $20M Series B round which was led by Caruso Ventures, Vision VC Fund, and strategic investors such as e& capital, investment pillar of e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), DFDF, SRMG, and WIN (Webit Investment Network, the financing arm of the Founders Games).
Ecotree has successfully raised €12 million in June 2022 to help its journey towards becoming the leading European Nature-Based Solutions provider. In this Series B round, EcoTree has welcomed investment from new partners such as Société Générale Ventures, Financière Fonds Privés and Famae Impact. EcoTree has also been invited to the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos in January 2023, as part of the 10 'Top Innovators' delegation from the '1 Trillion Trees' initiative.
6 months after winning the 2019 Founders Games, WeFarm has raised $11M in Series A funding to expand its network for its knowledge-sharing platform for small-scale farmers. Since then they have rocketed on to tripling their funding to $32M.
The Netherlands-based company developing an ultra-energy-efficient automotive platform has had a stellar growth raising $110M in funding less than a year after its win at Webit 2020. They have already built 946 of their first long range solar electric vehicles designed to be grid independent and are on their quest to launch a second highly efficient solar EV at price less than €30K.
The UK FG 2019 finalist have raised funding of tenfold the amount before Webit with current funding at $30M. They have teamed up with 2 major hospitals in the UK to aid expansion for revolutionizing the accessibility and diagnostic capability of non-invasive at-home urinary tract testing.
The music interaction network has an impressive track record in helping artists succeed in their music and making music more enjoyable for the fans. In just 2 years after participating in Webit.Virtual 2020, they have raised funds tenfold their funding before Webit to $28M in their quest to bring back the value of music as an art form.
Read more Success stories in our News section
Upon your application you gain:
From second round onwards you will further get:
with responsible and ESG impact corporate & VC partners supporting their leadership and helping them innovate through collaboration with the startup/scaleup worlds.
Join the collective intelligence scoring the most impactful innovations for the better, sustainable and resilient future.
Global Venture Capitalist, Draper Network
Co-Founder & Partner, Earlybird
Co-founder & Managing Partner, DN Capital
Partner, Sequoia Capital
Partner, GM Ventures
Investment partner, Lakestar
Lead partner, Speedinvest
Investment Partner, Molten Ventures
Co-founder & Managing Partner, Almaz Capital
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Earlybird Digital East Fund
Managing Director, 212 VC
Group VP, ABB Technology Ventures
General Partner, Webit Capital Partners
Founding Partner, Kiko VC
VP, Insight Partners
Founders Games – Curating one of the planet’s most impactful innovation communities.
Our mission is to make more people aware of the challenges and yet manifest the opportunities by discovering the means of solving them through innovation, hard work and the dreams of thousands of founders & countless ecosystem players. This is why Webit announces the world's biggest annual award pool for impact startup competition.
$6’000’000 investment award and participation grants for the best startups.
The Founders Games have always been Webit's tool for fostering innovation and supporting the startup ecosystem globally. Since 2009 we have been providing grants to hundreds of companies and supporting them in meeting the right partners, be recognized as future leaders, increase their funding, receive global media coverage, attract potential clients and grow.
Supporting discovery and development of impact exponential technologies.
Since 2009 Webit has been committed to fostering a global community focusing on creating a sustainable and resilient future. The Founders Games have been our way of giving back to the community and above all – empowering the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Leading journalists and correspondents from various worldwide media watch
and attend the Founders Games searching for the next great startup.
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