Startup World Cup 2023

Startup World Cup Luxembourg 2024

About Startup World Cup

Startup World Cup is a global series of conferences and competitions with the goal of connecting startup ecosystems worldwide and encouraging the most talented entrepreneurs to battle for the prestige of winning the Startup World Cup and a US$1 million prize in investment.

The competition comprises three phases: the regional finals (more than 70 regional competitions are scheduled all over the world); a semi-final and the Grand Finale, both held in San Francisco.

On 6 June, the Luxembourg regional competition will be hosted at the EY offices. Through this event, EY Luxembourg and its collaboration partners aim to foster local innovation by bringing a distinguished startup ecosystem together, giving Luxembourg startups exposure and access to some of the top VCs and tech entrepreneurs in the world.

On event day, 10 startups, previously pre-selected by our collaboration partners, will pitch in front of a jury composed of leading investors and serial entrepreneurs.

The Winner of this regional pitching competition will represent Luxembourg in the next stages of the competition in San Francisco and to be in for a chance to win a US$ 1 million prize in investment.

Do you have a Startup in Luxembourg? Apply now for the regional competition*

Apply here

*Only full profiles will be considered

Key dates

18 March

Application open

19 April

Submission deadline

6 May

Top 10 announcement

6 June

Luxembourg finale

Collaboration partners

Co-organizer of Rehearsal Pitch Event

Winner of 2023

A prestigious jury of VCs and tech entrepreneurs selected Circu Li-ion as the most promising startup during the final round of Startup World Cup in Luxembourg. Organized worldwide by Pegasus Tech Ventures and facilitated locally by EY Luxembourg, the competition unfolded on 13 June during a decisive pitching competition hosted at EY’s premises.

In the next round which took place in San Francisco in December 2023, Circu Li-ion’s co-founder, Antoine Welter, competed with more than 50 startups for the US$1 million prize in investment. After the semi-finals, Circu Li-ion was selected to pitch in a Grand Final and was recognized as one of the 10 most promising startups in the world. The company also had a chance to meet the potential investors, took part in workshops with experienced coaches and had the opportunity, through selected events, to meet and exchange with the US startup ecosystem.

Circu Li-ion was co-founded in 2021 by Antoine Welter and Dr Xavier Kohll. It is a European cleantech start-up aiming to maximize the lifecycle of each lithium-ion cell by developing solutions to create an ecosystem of reuse for lithium batteries on an industrial scale.

The business works toward the upcycling of large volumes of batteries, giving them a second life thanks to a fully automated procedure. This is the result of a universal disassembly method saving up to 48% CO2 emissions.

Winner of 2022

ANote Music was founded by Marzio F. Schena, Matteo Cernuschi and Grégoire Mathonet in January 2018 in Luxembourg, and became part of our EYnovation program. To this day, the total amount raised by the company stands at over € 1.5 million.

ANote Music’s mission is to ‘bridge the gap between music and finance, creating an accessible platform for music investment, through continual innovation, user first technology, and a love for music.’

At the regional phase of Startup World Cup 2022, ANote were shortlisted among the 10 best Luxembourg startups. They went on to win the Luxembourg stage of the competition, followed by F4A in second place and WEO in third.

The win in Luxembourg gave ANote Music access to the world semi-finals in San Francisco. They successfully reached the Grand Finale of the Startup World Cup 2022 and competed among the 10 best startups with a strong pitch.

ANote greatly benefited from this once-in-a-lifetime experience with plenty of international opportunities to expand and get recognition.