The Startup World Cup is returning to Sacramento in September to find companies whose pitches could make it to the grand finale in San Francisco in October to vie for a $1 million investment into the company.
The Sacramento regional competition will be Sept. 23 at the North Natomas Community Center at 2631 New Market Drive.
The Sacramento competition is just a couple weeks after a regional competition in Sweden and less than two weeks before the finals in San Francisco.
Startup World Cup puts on more than 70 regional competitions around the globe to find intriguing entrepreneurs in all kinds of fields.
The Startup World Cup in Sacramento is put on by nonprofit entrepreneurship organization HumanBulb of Sacramento and sponsored by San Jose-based venture capital firm Pegasus Tech Ventures.
Pegasus portfolio companies include SpaceX, Airbnb Inc. (Nasdaq: ABNB), SoFi Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: SOFI) and DoorDash Inc. (NYSE: DASH).
The Sacramento application is available on HumanBulb's Startup World Cup website. The application form includes brief descriptions of the applicant, and it has a place to load pitch decks and videos.
The first year the Startup World Cup made a Sacramento stop in 2022, smart parking technology company Japa Inc. of West Sacramento was the local winner that went on to pitch in San Francisco. Last year, Sacramento-based water leak detection technology company Electro Scan represented Sacramento in the finals.
The competition finale in San Francisco also includes some 20 technology industry speakers, this year featuring executives from Samsung, Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) and other tech companies along with Robert Herjavec from ABC's "Shark Tank" and venture capital investor Tim Draper.
Pegasus says the Startup World Cup is the largest startup competition in the world. Judges tend to seek unique ideas solving real-world issues.
