• Vestbee teams up with an extensive list of recognized partners to recognize and reward aspiring startups across various industries in CEE
• All partners have prepared exciting prizes, including free credits, massive discounts, and press coverage. No participant will go unrewarded
• Participants are to apply until November 25th, winners will be announced on December 15th

Vestbee, the top platform for matching startups and investors in CEE, announces another edition of its famed CEE Startup Challenge. Startups from a wide range of industries and niches are welcome to compete for valuable prizes and get exposed to the region’s top investors. Winners will get valuable prizes from AWS, HubSpot, Zendesk, and other partners, and no participant will go empty-handed.

Eligibility

This edition Challenge targets Pre-Seed through Seris A-stage startups. This time, the focus is on the following categories:

• AI, Analytics, and Big Data
• Fintech & Insurtech
• Healthcare & Wellbeing
• Industry 4.0 & Manufacturing
• Planet & Sustainability
• SaaS & Marketplace
• Smart Cities & Home
• Transport & Logistics
• Startups with Female Founders

Startups are to apply here before November 25th. The jury will take their time and announce the semi-finalists on December 7th, and they will be welcome to pitch the same day. The finalists will be announced the next day and pitch on December 15th.

Prizes

Vestbee gathered an extensive list of partners for the challenge. They all contribute to a huge selection of prizes, including:

• up to USD 25K of startup credits for Top 10 finalists, up to USD 10K for all participants, and up to USD 100K for selected teams from AWS
• 500,000 email verifications for the Top 3, 100,000 for the Top 10, and 25,000 + 20% off for all participants from Bouncer
• one-year premium access for the winner, 6 free months for the Top 3, and one free month for all applicants from Brand24
• Fast track to Vestbee’s CEE VC Summit for selected startups
• free consultations and workshops for the Top 3 and 5% off on grant writing services for EIC-related grants for the Top 3 eligible startups from Cresco
• 12 free months of the basic plan or 90% off for the premium plan for selected teams from customer.io
• Free Ticket to the next Disraptors Summit for the Top 2 and 25% off for all applicants
• Up to 90% off for the Top 100 eligible startups from Hubspot
• free media coverage for Top 3 from ITKeyMedia
• USD 3K of credits for the annual business plan from Loom
• Free media coverage for the winner and 35% off for all participants from MamStartup
• participation in Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program for selected teams
• USD 50K on the Mixpanel Growth Plan for all applicants from Mixpanel
• USD 1K of credits for all participants from Notion
• up to EUR 100K infrastructure credits for all participants, participation in OVHcloud Startup Program and marketing + technical support from OVHcloud
• EUR 30K of credits for Top 10 scaleups and EUR 15K for all participants from Stripe
• free year of Business Plan for the winner, 6 free months for the Top 10, and 3 free months for all applicants from TrustMate
• EUR 2K worth of grant consultations, EUR 1K for the Top 3, and EUR 0.5K for the Top 10 from UpSpark
• 1-on-1 onboarding for TOP 10 and 6 months free for all participants from Zendesk

Jury

The current edition’s rosters of judges will include:

• Ewa Chronowska and Marcin Laczynski, Partners at Next Road Ventures
• Michał Bajda and Szymon Kwiatkowski, Business Creation Managers at EIT InnoEnergy Central Europe
• Dr Ryan Qian Gong, Chief Investment Director EMEA at Huawei
• Marcin Hejka, General Partner at OTB Ventures
• Jan Habermann, Partner at Credo Ventures
• Maximilian Schausberger, Managing Director at Elevator Ventures
• Daniel Tomov, Founding Partner at Eleven Ventures
• Kasparas Jurgelionis, Managing Partner at Iron Wolf Capital
• Marcin Kurek, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Market One Capital
• Michał Rokosz, Partner at Inovo Venture Partners
• Krzysztof Tokarski, Managing Director at PKO VC
• Eva Arh, Partner at 3VC
• Bartek Knichnicki, Managing Partner at SATUS Starter VC
• Claudia Czigony, Investment Manager at Impact Ventures
• Robert Reich, Investment Manager at Lighthouse Ventures
• And more recognized names from the VC space

You are welcome to find the complete list of the jury and partners here.

More Details

For more information, please the Challenge’s page and follow Vestbee’s LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Before applying, please take a few moments and take a look at Vestbee’s free Perfect Pitch Guide.