On October 17, 2025, ten startup company finalists, chosen from thousands of startups around the world, pitched in front of a panel of Silicon Valley venture capital investor judges for a $1 Million prize. The judges awarded the 2025 Grand Finale prize to Coreshell, which provides affordable, scalable batteries with metallurgical silicon anodes, offering lower cost and longer range for EVs.

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Startup World Cup 2025 Awards $1 Million Grand Prize to Coreshell

The event was the Grand Finale of the 2025 edition of the Startup World Cup, a global competition organized by Pegasus Tech Ventures. The Startup World Cup annual competition was launched in 2016 and has since become the largest and #1 startup competition in the world, with competitions in more than 100 regions around the world. This year's Grand Finale was held at the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco, with over 3,000 attendees cheering on the entrepreneurs and listening to a series of fireside chats and panel discussions with tech luminaries in between the pitches.

Other finalist companies competing for the $1 Million investment prize included companies from New Zealand, Taiwan, Spain, Japan, Kenya, and the U.S. The ten finalists were chosen in a semi-final competition held on October 15 in San Francisco, during which approximately 100 regional winners from across six continents around the world competed for ten finalist slots.

Intuition Robotics, representing Israel, took home 2^nd place. Intuition Robotics is pioneering relationship-driven AI with ElliQ, the first proactive AI companion for happier, healthier aging. BuuPass, representing Kenya, took home 3^rd place. BuuPass is the Toast-meets-Expedia (or Stripe-meets-Booking.com) for Africa's $100B long-distance transport market.

Startup World Cup 2025 Finalists

• Coreshell Technologies (East Bay, USA) - Winner of $1 million investment prize
  • Coreshell provides affordable, scalable batteries with metallurgical silicon anodes, offering lower cost and longer range for EVs.
• Acompany (Tokyo, Japan)
  • Acompany provides confidential computing solutions for businesses to securely analyze encrypted data while maintaining privacy compliance.
• BuuPass (Nairobi, Kenya)
  • BuuPass is the Toast-meets-Expedia (or Stripe-meets-Booking.com) for Africa's $100B long-distance transport market
• FaceHeart (Taipei, Taiwan)
  • Contactless video-based vital signs monitoring powered by cutting-edge AI image recognition & rPPG technology
• GO TO-U (Los Angeles, USA)
  • GO TO-U provides EV charging management software for charge point operators to optimize station operations and driver experience.
• Happy Robot (Bilbao, Spain)
  • Power your operations with an AI workforce
• Intuition Robotics (Tel Aviv, Israel)
  • Pioneering relationship-driven AI with ElliQ, the first proactive AI companion for happier, healthier aging.
• Macro Cycle (San Francisco, USA)
  • Circular plastics and textile with zero carbon emissions at cost parity
• ScentianBio (Wellington, New Zealand)
  • ScentianBio makes digital smell sensors using insect receptors to detect food quality issues for food and beverage producers.
• Vital Audio (New York, USA)
  • Vital Audio uses proprietary voice technology to assess cardiac and pulmonary health through phone calls—enabling earlier interventions and device-free care for over 100M high-risk patients.

Conference and Competition

The Grand Finale on October 17^th was a conference and a competition. Speakers included Lori Greiner of Shark Tank, senior executives and co-founders from Google, AMD, LinkedIn, Brex, Docusign, Cloudflare, and Dell, as well as Partners from top Silicon Valley VCs, including Greylock Partners, NEA, and Redpoint Ventures, and more.

The competition was judged by a panel of investors from Andreesen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Samsung Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Norwest, and more. “This year’s competition was incredibly fierce and packed with adrenaline. It was such a tough decision to decide. Startups battled intensely for a spot in the Top 10, and the energy and enthusiasm from entrepreneurs around the world were truly impressive,” said Anis Uzzaman, Founder and CEO of Pegasus Tech Ventures and Chairman of the Startup World Cup. “We are extremely proud of this year’s champion and extend our heartfelt congratulations to the Coreshell team for their outstanding performance at the Startup World Cup 2025 Grand Finale.

"This year’s event once again demonstrated that innovation knows no boundaries. A successful startup can emerge from anywhere in the world and rise to compete on the global stage. This inspires and empowers startups from every corner of the globe to keep pushing forward, take bold risks, and chase their vision without hesitation.”

For photos of the event, please click here.

About Pegasus Tech Ventures

Pegasus Tech Ventures is a global venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley with $2 billion in assets under management. Pegasus offers intellectual and financial capital to emerging technology companies around the world. In addition to offering institutional investors a top-tier venture capital investment approach, Pegasus also offers a unique Venture Capital-as-a-Service (VCaaS) model for large, global corporations that wish to partner with cutting-edge technology startups. For more information about Pegasus, please check out: pegasustechventures.com.

For more information about Pegasus Tech Ventures, please visit https://www.pegasustechventures.com.

About Startup World Cup

Startup World Cup is the #1 startup pitch competition in the world, hosted by Pegasus Tech Ventures. With 100+ regional pitch competitions across 6 continents, Startup World Cup provides a global platform for startups to showcase their innovations and secure funding. Startups can apply to pitch at our upcoming regional events and have a unique opportunity to bring their ideas to Silicon Valley.

The winner of each regional pitch competition will earn an invitation to the Startup World Cup Grand Finale series of events in San Francisco, California. At the Grand Finale, the Regional Startup Winners will compete for a $1 MILLION investment prize and gain access to an unparalleled network of global investors, mentors, and industry partners.

For more information on the Startup World Cup, please visit https://www.startupworldcup.io.

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Startup World Cup 2025 Awards $1 Million Grand Prize to Coreshell