HEIPowered Startup Pitch Competition - Second Edition
ClosedDescription
The HEIPowered Startup Pitch Competition is a platform to continue supporting startups that have emerged or received backing by projects funded by the EIT Higher Education Initiative since 2021, providing follow-up opportunities for startups beyond the initial project lifecycle. Its main objective is to further accelerate the growth of HEI-supported startups, strengthen their market readiness, scalability, and long-term sustainability, and contribute to a stronger entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in Europe. To achieve this objective, the Call focuses on: • Advancing innovation pathways in startups that have reached a proof of concept, prototype, or minimum viable product (MVP) stage, helping them progress towards market deployment. • Empowering startups with well-structured teams that possess the necessary skills, experience, and competencies to effectively implement and scale their projects. • Promoting diversity and inclusion by fostering gender-balanced and diverse startups, with a strong encouragement for women-led startups and active participation of women in leadership and decision-making roles. • Providing startups with opportunities to increase their visibility, connect with stakeholders, and access further development and scaling support. • Promoting and strengthening the EIT Higher Education Initiative’s Community with new startup members and opportunities for them.
Beneficiary & submission
The competition will consist of two stages: Stage 1 – Online Proposal Submission and Stage 2 – In-Person Startup Pitch Competition. Stage 1: Online Proposal Within the first stage, startups will submit an online application, including a Pitch Deck presentation. Based on the evaluation of these applications, the top five-ranked startups will be selected and invited to the in-person Startup Pitch Competition (second stage). Online applications need to be submitted through the EIT Urban Mobility Programmes Portal (NetSuite) (see section 7.2 of the Call for a Prize-Rules of contest ) for submission steps). Proposals will have to follow the standard submission and evaluation procedure. Proposals will first be checked for admissibility and eligibility, see Section 6.1 of the HEIPowered Startup Pitch Competition Call for a Prize-Rules of contest . Proposals found admissible and eligible will be evaluated against the award criteria by an External Expert. Stage 2: In-person Startup Pitch Competition and Selection , In the second stage, the five shortlisted startups will present their ventures through live pitches at the in-person Startup Pitch Competition and selection of the three winners. This event is scheduled to take place in Q4 2026 in a European city (tbc). The EIT HEIPowered Startup Pitch Competition Selection Committee will selected the three winner startups (see Section 6.2.2 of the HEIPowered Startup Pitch Competition Call for a Prize-Rules of contest ). Three winners will be selected to receive: Cash fund: 1st place: 15.000€ 2nd place: 10.000€ 3rd place: 5.000€ Mentorship: The three winning startups will each receive 8 hours of individualized mentoring from a pool of expert mentors. Additionally, the two remaining finalists will each receive 3 hours of individualized mentoring.
Further information
Applications must be submitted through the EIT Urban Mobility Programmes Portal (NetSuite). Detailed information on the submission and evaluation process is available on the EIT Urban Mobility website (Prize page accessible here), and in the Prize document (accessible here). For further information, the Guidelines for Applicants are accessible here. Register to the information session on 22 June from 12 am to 1 pm, through the EIT Higher Education Initiative Community, with the following link.