1776 Challenge Cup, a worldwide tournament for the most promising, innovative startups has partnered with Steve Case’ Revolution to bring to Africa to pick the best startups and has named Accra, Addis Ababa & Nairob among the first 31 cities from the expected 75 cities.
The competition will host the best startups, connect them to investors and partners and help them share their vision on a global stage. In Africa, iSpace Foundation will host the competition for Accra‘s top startups on May 27, 2017 while Ice Addis for startups in Ethiopia on July 25 and iHub for Kenya‘s top startups on August 22, 2017 and at Hive Colab in Kampala and at BIAT in Tunis.
The local events will see 15-20 startups will pitch in every city for the chance to win a paid trip to New York City for the Global Final round of Challenge Cup.
“The Challenge Cup illustrates that great companies can start and scale anywhere. While talent is evenly distributed, opportunity is not and the Challenge Cup is squarely addressing this inequity,” said Steve Case, CEO and Chairman of Revolution LLC and Co-founder of AOL. “Revolution is proud to partner with 1776 again on this effort to provide startups around the world with the tools they need and the attention they deserve.”
One winner from each of these regions will advance with a free trip to the Global Finals at Challenge Festival in New York City from November 13-17, 2017. There, the finalists will compete for the grand prizes as well as spend time with the investors, customers, media and other key connections that can help them succeed on a global scale.
1776 Challenge Cup and Revolution aim to create a movement of startups bringing world-changing ideas to life and solving meaningful problems on a global stage. 1776 started Challenge Cup four years ago to discover the most promising, highly scalable startups poised to solve complex challenges across borders, regulated industries and emerging technologies.
“The Challenge Cup is more than a pitch competition. We are forging partnerships between government officials, institutions, and entrepreneurs tackling complex challenges,” said Evan Burfield, Cofounder and CEO of 1776. “By partnering with Revolution we are reinforcing the networks necessary for startups to solve meaningful problems on a global stage. By hosting the competition on 1776’s UNION network, we are uniting the fragmented global startup ecosystem in this mission.”
Kenya’s Twiga Foods won the 2014 1776 Challenge Cup. To attend 1776 Challenge Cup in your city check here.