We have won the World Startup Competition that was held on Nov. 24-25 in Seoul, Korea as part of Startup Nations Summit 2014. We were selected as the best startup in strong competition of 46 teams from 45 countries. Five of them were selected to compete in the final round. Alongside AGRIVI, the other finalists were
- Pulsate from Ireland (www.pulsatehq.com)
- SALt from the Philippines (www.salt.ph)
- Hoope from Peru (www.hoope.io)
- neoScores from Belgium (www.neoscores.com)
Prize winners show off their awards / From left, Irina Rymshina (CEO, Hoope), Matija Zulj (CEO, AGRIVI), Bart Van der Roost (CEO, neoScores) and Aisa Mijeno (CEO, SALt) In the finals each team had five minutes to present their startups, followed by seven minutes of Q&A with the judges, and three minutes of audience questions. They were judged based on five elements: service potential, market potential, team, innovation, and pitching skills. The judges included Naree Lee (Managing Director, D.CAMP, Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs), Edward Jung (Founder and CEO, Intellectual Ventures), Sanqi Li (CTO, Huawei), John Lee (Country Director, Google Korea), and Heesung Oh (VP of Operations, Foxconn).
Judges of the World Startup Competition Grand Final prepare for judging / From left, Heesung Oh, John Lee, Sanqi Li, Edward Jung, and Naree Lee Five prizes were awarded, totaling $110,000 USD in prize money. The People’s Choice Award, presented by Hyundai Motors and the KOTRA Award, worth $10,000 each, were both awarded to SALt from the Philippines. The Google-D.CAMP Award, worth $20,000 was awarded to Hoope from Peru. The Foxconn Award of $20,000 went to neoScores from Belgium. The top prize from Huawei, valued at $50,000, was awarded to AGRIVI. “I’m very happy about the win and first prize. There were so many great startups that I couldn’t believe when we were announced as the winner. This is a great inspiration for us to keep moving forward even faster towards our vision – to change the way food is produced and make positive impact on more than 1 billion people” said Matija Zulj, CEO of AGRIVI.
Sanqi Li (left), CTO of Huawei, presenting the World Startup Competition’s top prize to Matija Zulj, CEO of farm management software startup, AGRIVI
