Startup Global Pitch Competition 2025 for Early-stage Entrepreneurs – YOA

Deadline: March 28, 2025

Applications are open for the Startup Global Pitch Competition 2025. The Startup Global Pitch Competition is for early-stage entrepreneurs seeking to export their merchandise and/or providers outdoors of Canada. Ten finalists can be flown out to Mississauga to compete for their likelihood to win from a money prize pool of $70,000 to develop their enterprise!

Startup Canada is the gateway to Canada’s entrepreneurial ecosystem that factors you in the appropriate route, eliminates obstacles, and champions your wants to non-public and public sector companions. They join you with help organizations and friends throughout the nation with business experience, regional data, and funding that can assist you begin and construct profitable companies.

Prizes

The winner of every Pop-up Pitch Competition on the Startup Canada Tour stops will win a $3,000 money prize. In the Grand Finale, the highest 10 pitchers can be competing for one of many following prizes:

• 1st Place: $30,000
• 2nd Place: $15,000
• third Place: $7,500
• People’s Choice Award: $2,500

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Startup Global Pitch Competition, you should meet the next standards:

• The intention/skill to export and develop your corporation internationally.
• Less than $1,000,000 in income, as of February 3, 2025.
• Less than $1,000,000 in fundraising or funding (grants, financial institution loans, fairness funding), as of February 3, 2025.
• Less than 5 years of working your corporation, as of February 3, 2025.
• Have enterprise/operations primarily based in Canada.

Note these further eligibility particulars:

• Employees of Startup Canada (and their speedy members of the family) are ineligible to apply. 
• Submissions could also be entered as people or groups, nonetheless, the utmost variety of group members for a single pitch is proscribed to 1 individual per firm.
• An organization might solely submit one pitch to be thought-about for adjudication. 
• For the Grand Finale, just one consultant of the corporate might pitch to the panel of judges or reply questions from the judges and/or viewers. For in-individual pitches, the individual that pitches at a Tour cease should be the individual that pitches on the Grand Finale.

Judging Criteria

The standards concentrate on answering one vital query, “What is your potential to scale globally?” To assist reply this query, the panel of judges will assess your corporation below the next standards:

• Target market: Is there a clearly outlined goal market? Businesses which have clearly outlined their target market will be capable to determine the potential for scaling globally, similar to understanding the present measurement and potential progress of a goal market, the volatility or stability of a goal market, or figuring out specific traits like a excessive-priced area of interest.
• Objective: All options are constructed to repair an recognized downside, however not all issues want scalable options. Does your corporation resolve an issue from a brief-time period pattern? Or is there an actual lengthy-time period want for your answer? Businesses which have the potential to go world have lengthy-run, sustainable enterprise fashions.
• Solution: Businesses with an in depth, progressive answer with a robust distinctive promoting proposition (USP) can be extra more likely to scale globally. This criterion assesses your total services or products, for occasion, worth, comfort, uniqueness, innovation, high quality, effectivity, and branding.
• Leadership: What does your management group appear to be? Does your group, mentors or board of advisors have business expertise, key relationships, and/or prior successes and failures? These are essential aspects in figuring out whether or not your corporation has the help and steering to assist efficiently develop globally.
• Traction (if any): A key indicator of having the ability to scale globally is an in depth evaluation of the trajectory of an answer. This contains evaluating the minimal viable product (MVP), and present companions.
• Competition: Going world means stacking up in opposition to a global group of innovators and entrepreneurs; how does your corporation stand out? Why ought to a buyer select your answer over one other?
• Ability to go world: This criterion hopes to assist the panel of judges in the end reply the query, “Do you think this contestant has the potential to scale globally?”

Application

There are two methods to take part within the 2025 Startup Global Pitch Competition. You can pitch in-individual at one of many 4 Startup Canada Tour stops or nearly.

For extra data, go to Startup Global Pitch Competition.