Founders Games

The World's Biggest Ever award Pool of $6 000 000

13 years Founders Games - the world's impact innovation challenge!
Supporting exponential innovation for a better, healthier, desirable, accessible,
responsible sustainable and resilient future!


APPLY HERE for the next batch.

Scaleup? Apply for the Competition

Noyes Technologies Success Story

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Noyes Technologies Success Story

March 23, 2023

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Mission statement

We identify, endorse and award globally the high growth companies and their founders who lead the way to achieving the SDGs by creating a successful, scalable, sustainable and resilient businesses.

Collective Intelligence

FG is the only global platform powered by the collective intelligence of over 200 late stage VC investors who commit time to score over 3000 applications (in 17 verticals) per season from 140+ countries.

The finalists are selected among the top (highest) ranked companies (scaleups) after 5 rounds of selection.

Founders Games 2019 Awards Ceremony!

Global Outreach and Impact

During the past 13 years, Founders Games has established as the premier scaleup (high growth) innovation competition with the world’s biggest funding award of $6 000 000 (six million US Dollars) provided by over 750 investors in the publicly listed company - Webit Investment Network - WIN.

Over 3000 companies from 140+ countries apply for every season of the competition. There are two seasons:

  • Summer - the finals take place as part of our annual Webit editions (application window November - May)
  • Winter - in 2023 for the first time the finals took place during the WEF week in Davos (application window June October)

You may see the previous finalists and their success stories.

Founders Games Finals

& ESG Cocktail in Davos

19 Jan, 2023

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 during the WEF week.

Compare & compete with the best

in front of leading global & regional investors

With the support of

The 12th annual Founders Games competition in 2022 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.


APPLY HERE for the next batch.

Scaleup? Apply for the Competition

Webit is doing an enormous service.

Eric Schmidt
Co-Founder, Schmidt Futures;
Former CEO, Google

Founders Games Verticals

Mobility and Urban Tech (including urban solutions, renewable powered mobility, underground, ground and above ground transportation, etc)
Financial technologies, DeFi (future of money, payments, banking, crypto)
Health Innovation
Biotech
Еducation / Еdtech
Energy (new / future energy sources, energy management / preservation / distribution, smart infrastructure)
Robotics (robots, drones, self sustained machines)
Food and agriculture (new types of food, food security, food systems)
Defence (cybersecurity, defence innovation, resilient and secured infrastructure)
Media and Entertainment (gaming and virtual reality/metaverse, esports, future of entertainment, VR/AR, new platforms, virtual real estate, virtual lives, NFTs)
Marketing and advertising (future of branding and advertising, brand communication)
Space (space exploration, asteroid mining, space transportation, space communication)
Fashion (sustainable materials and production)
Planet and climate tech
New Materials
Enterprise
e-Commerce/Logistics

APPLY HERE for the next batch.

Scaleup? Apply for the Competition

SUCCESS STORIES - GROW EXPONENTIALLY & WIN A GLOBAL EXPOSURE

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.

Founders Games stats: 2019-2020
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

Why Founders choose Founders games?

The opportunity to access capital & global corporations

Upon your application you gain:



Opportunity to get a major share of the $6'000'000 award pool


Global exposure to investors - VCs, family offices, business angels

From second round onwards you will further get:



Media exposure


Connections with potential corporate partners and clients (Webit dedicated team shall guide you and help you with the networking and 1:1 meetings)


Free festival Webit tickets and opportunity to exhibit


Help and guidance with your presentation and pitch deck


Virtual + in-person pitches in front of top investors' jury

APPLY HERE for the next batch.

Apply Now

Startup journey timeline

Startup journey timeline

1. Application
on our website

Fill in your company details
in the application form.

2. EVALUATION
CRITERIA

The criteria against which companies are evaluated in 5 rounds include:

Read more

3. Invitation
to pitch & present

Keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation email from us

Tip

4. Get ready
to pitch-perfect & win

Prepare your perfect pitch and get ready to roll

Read more

The Award Investment


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.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

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.

Founders Games yearly stats



300
investors watch and evaluate


4000+
startup applicants


1,500
startups receive free tickets


200
startups get selected to pitch and exhibit for free


65%
of all selected startups receive funding up to 8 months after participating

We partner

with responsible and ESG impact corporate & VC partners supporting their leadership and helping them innovate through collaboration with the startup/scaleup worlds.

Become a partner

Founders Games 2022 Highlights

In 2022 we take a step further. We want to expand our impact to many more millions of people and share our optimism about a world full of abundance of opportunities. A world made possible by bringing to light responsible, resilient lifestyle, exponential technologies and the people who will help the human kind to achieve it. See below and step into the adventure.

Metaverse Project

Founders Games Metaverse Project

Тaking a leap into the metaverse! Weekly showcase of amazing technologies from the real world to the meta bridging the best of human potential & technology.

Founders Games Summer Edition

Summer Edition

Part of our annual Webit editions - startups and scaleups from the 4 corners of the world will gather with VCs, investors, business & enterprise leaders for a showcase of their ideas, guidance and support, quality networking, knowledge sharing and media exposure.

Founders Games Summer Edition

Winter Edition

Closing 2022 with the best of the best founders for the win of a $6M award.

Mission

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.

Global Award

$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. During the past 12 years 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.

Legacy

Supporting discovery and development of impact exponential technologies.

For the past 15 years Webit has been committed to fostering a global community focusing on creating a sustainable and resilient future. 12 out of 15 years of Webit history, the Founders Games have been our way of giving back to the community and above all – empowering the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

JURY OPEN CALL

Join the collective intelligence scoring the most impactful innovations for the better, sustainable and resilient future.

Join the jury

Success Stories

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.

WeFarm

WeFarm

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.

Lightyear

Lightyear

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.

TestCard

TestCard

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.

Show4me

Show4me

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.

Media Exposure

Leading journalists and correspondents from various worldwide media watch
and attend the Founders Games searching for the next great startup.

Media

Winter 2022 Edition Finalists

Previous Finalists

Watch On-demand


APPLY HERE for the next batch.

Scaleup? Apply for the Competition