It’s not each day you get to pitch for US$1 million in funding. However then once more, the Startup World Cup in San Francisco will not be your on a regular basis startup pitch comp.
Three Australian startups – Adiona, Deeligence and GravityFit – had been amongst 98 finalists from 100 regional competitions throughout 60+ nations to fly to San Francisco for the “primary startup competitors on the planet”, and the prospect to attain A$1.5m in funding from US VC Pegasus Ventures.
The comfort prize? A uncommon second to pitch to a room of 500 traders and spend the week networking and attending workshops with the world’s prime founders, VCs and tech leaders in Silicon Valley.
Startup Every day, in partnership with Startup World Cup sponsor Dell Applied sciences, adopted Adiona and Deeligence’s journeys on the bottom.
The ability, the fervour, the TROPHY. Picture: Startup&Angels.
Earlier than the pitch: Adiona
“It sounds extra like a sports activities occasion, proper?” mentioned Richard Savoie, sitting behind a self-driving Waymo caught in San Francisco site visitors.
“But it surely’s really far more than that. It’s the one ecosystem I’ve seen that brings collectively entrepreneurs from everywhere in the world and permits you to actually join and share in a aggressive method – a supportive aggressive method.
“There’s solely upside in one thing like this as a result of we get collectively, we’ve got this enjoyable competitors, someone walks away with some prize cash.”
The selection of transport couldn’t be extra acceptable: Savoie is the founding father of Australian AI-driven logistics startup Adiona, a supply optimisation platform for medium and huge fleets that helps them convert to electrical energy and autonomous logistics.
Powering tens of millions of deliveries for the likes of Australia Publish and Coca-Cola, Adiona reduces each prices and emissions to assist create extra sustainable logistics networks globally.
It’s an innovation that received Adiona the Startup World Cup Sydney regional pitch competitors, incomes Savoie his spot within the ‘startup Olympics’.
“What would we do with the $1 million funding? It’s catalyst cash,” he advised us.
“It’s the kind of cash which you can then instantly go to different traders and get match funding extremely shortly… it could’t be understated how that prize, the million bucks, is nice however the different doorways that it’s going to open up could be even larger.”
STARTUP INSIDER: Adiona on the Startup World Cup (Publish continues after video)
Earlier than the pitch: Deeligence
“I really feel like so massively energised about being on this city,” mentioned Elena Tsalanidis from lawtech due diligence platform Deeligence, winner of the Startup World Cup Melbourne.
“Even the drive from the airport to my resort, it was simply billboards of software program and AI corporations. That is the house of tech and the place that you simply actually must be if you happen to’re occupied with elevating exterior capital or constructing a world-class firm.”
The previous worldwide lawyer sees the San Francisco alternative as a US launchpad for Deeligence, which she based with one other ex-lawyer, Justin Hansky, in 2022.
Pitching it as “an AI-powered Monday.com however constructed particularly for due diligence”, Tsalanidis desires to fast-track the repetitive and laborious work of due diligence that merger and acquisition attorneys face.
“We work with the most important and greatest regulation corporations throughout Australia and New Zealand. We’re increasing to the UK and the US,” Tsalanidis mentioned.
“For corporations, we assist them ship due diligence in six days, not six weeks. We make sure that they double productiveness and so they ship the work as effectively as potential, defending their margins.”
With deal sizes doubling, progress ballooning 45% month-on-month and a present funding spherical with US traders on board, Tsalanidis knew she had a pitch that was, properly, pitch good.
STARTUP INSIDER: Deeligence on the Startup World Cup (Publish continues after video)
‘All the time be pitching’: The semi-final
The semi-final gave 98 startups two minutes on stage to pitch to traders, with a one-minute Q&A.
The highest 10 would go on to pitch to 500 traders on the grand ultimate.
On the semi-final, Savoie was an image of calm.
“One of many thrilling issues about this complete course of is that everyone right here has crushed a whole lot of corporations to get right here. They’re all skilled entrepreneurs. They’re used to being advised no. They’re used to not successful typically. No person’s wandering round depressed in the event that they don’t win. It’s all individuals who see the upside of this,” he mentioned.
Tsalanidis equally felt prepared to present it her greatest shot.
“As a founder, you’re at all times pitching to somebody, whether or not it’s a brand new workforce member or at a contest to an investor. Our job is to promote all the pieces, All the time be pitching,” she mentioned.
Each founders had been mentored by Epic Execution‘s David Kenney and Mike Parsons, who helped them good their Startup World Cup pitches.
“We’ve run a program for the final eight weeks the place we get collectively as soon as per week and we speak about enterprise fashions, how they’re reaching clients, enterprise gross sales and primarily simply serving to them tighten up their messaging, prepare for the large pitch in Silicon Valley,” Kenney mentioned.
Leo Denes, founding father of B2B consultancy Australiance and occasions arm Startup&Angels, which hosted the Startup World Cup occasions in Sydney and Melbourne, noticed the pitches in actual time.
“Deeligence and Adiona introduced very properly. They had been a number of the greatest pitches delivered,” he mentioned.
“I feel it’s very attention-grabbing for Australian founders being within the US – there are numerous similarities and variations. If something, if you wish to develop within the US market, such a expertise is life-changing.”
The involvement of tech heavyweights within the Startup World Cup provides additional gravitas. Satish Iyer, vp for innovation and ecosystem on the workplace of the CTO/AI at Dell Applied sciences, a associate of the Sydney, Melbourne and San Francsisco occasions, sees it as a possibility to attach enterprise and fast-growing scaleups.
“We recognise that the best way of fixing a few of these issues are very completely different now,” Iyer advised Startup Every day.
“It provides us numerous publicity to those corporations and what we achieve this that we will discover the best companions as we remedy our buyer issues. So I feel there’s no different technique to do this stuff [than] by integrating and speaking to those startups.”
‘You possibly can’t purchase that’: The end result
The semi-finalists obtained their time within the highlight on the Grand Closing. Picture: Startup&Angels.
Whereas one in every of our neighbours from throughout the pond, New Zealand’s Scentian Bio, made the highest 10, Australia’s startups narrowly missed out on the ultimate.
However not all was misplaced. All 98 corporations obtained to ship a one-minute model of their pitch on stage on the Startup World Cup Grand Closing.
“That one minute of publicity – you’ll be able to’t purchase that. It’s not on the market,” Savoie mentioned.
Simply moments after her 60-seconds, Tsalanidis mentioned it was “doubtlessly the toughest pitch it’s important to ship since you’ve obtained to be actually tight with what you’re presenting, your message and your resolution”.
Adiona and Deeligence didn’t come residence with the US$1 million – that went to Californian EV battery startup Coreshell. However they discovered loads of upsides.
“I’ve carried out buyer conferences, I’ve met with regulation corporations, I closed a buyer all the best way from San Francisco, and naturally met with traders in addition to collaborating within the Startup World Cup,” Tsalanidis mentioned.
“It’s been an awesome excuse to satisfy all the best folks to guarantee that Deeligence works within the US.”
Buyer and investor conferences had been additionally prime of Savoie’s highlights checklist – amongst different issues.
“I crammed in my San Francisco bingo card with my journey on a cable automotive, my burger and bacon, and the Waymo trip, after all,” he mentioned.
“It’s been actually thrilling to satisfy the entire regional winners from world wide. I’ve realized lots.
“We’re going to proceed to construct out our go-to marketplace for North America. We’re making these contacts right here to have that credible plan. We’re constructing out our workforce and assembly the individuals who could possibly be the subsequent Adiona workforce right here within the US.
“It’s onwards and upwards for us.”
Learn, watch and study extra concerning the Startup World Cup proper right here:
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