The long-awaited time has finally come. After announcing the Challenge Cup in July, 1776 has finally opened its application process for startups in the global startup competition's first eight cities.
The Challenge Cup will kickoff at 1776, just a few block north of the White House in D.C. on Oct. 29, before moving on to 1871 in Chicago on Nov. 4, Digital October in Moscow on Nov. 9 and Betahaus in Berlin on Nov. 13. Additionally, competitions will be held in London, Los Angeles, New York and Boston later in November through December.
According to a press release, 1776 is searching for startups innovating in the following categories:
- Education: Helping more people receive high-quality education opportunities while reducing costs.
- Health: Improving health outcomes while reducing costs.
- Energy: Powering expanding populations around the world while reducing harmful side effects.
- Smart Cities: Making cities more safe, convenient and sustainable in areas such as transportation, public safety and government services.
If your startup fits the mold, you should apply here.
But there are limits. To be considered for the Challenge Cup companies must "be less than three years old, have less than $3M USD in revenue to date, have a scalable product or service already in the market, evidence some level of traction (active users, enterprise customers, or revenue), and have raised less than $1.5M USD in capital."
Along with the other eight cities – San Francisco, Denver, Austin, Tel Aviv, Cape Town, Delhi, Beijing and Sao Paulo – one winner from each of the categories in each city will be chosen to compete in a week-long festival in D.C. sometime in 2014. The 64 startups from around the world will then battle to be crowned the winner of the Challenge Cup. The top eight finalist will receive investments from 1776.
And that money doesn't come from nowhere. 1776 also announced The Aspen Institute Global Alliances Program and U.S. Chamber of Commerce as global sponsors for the Challenge Cup. Also, the competition was kickstarted in July with a $180,000 grant from the District.
For those hoping to compete at the first eight cities, applications for the D.C., Chicago, Moscow and Berlin events are due Oct. 11, while applications for the London, Los Angeles, New York and Boston events will be due Oct. 25.
