Vlad Andriescu
This year the TechChill community is putting their money where their mouth is – in a show of strength, commitment, and belief in the future of the ecosystem, startup founders and community organizations have contributed to the prize pot which currently stands at 10,000 EUR and growing. Contributing community members include Longenesis, eazyBI, Lokalise, Gravity Team, Sellfy, Helve, Truesix, and Change Ventures.
Additionally, the syndicated investment opportunity prize, 150,000 EUR, is provided by BaDideas fund – a fund made up of founders backing founders with crazy ideas. Together, the prize pool is a testament to the maturity of the ecosystem, and the unity of its participants who are literally betting on each other.
“BAideas fund is made up of founders supporting other founders and their world-changing ideas. The fund’s roots are in Latvia, as well as many of our investors. We are excited/commited to support the next generation of startups and give back to the community alongside TechChill, a conference that gave many of us our first stage. We’ll be looking for the next supposedly “bad idea” that will rock the industry and grow to be a major disruptor.” - Raimonds Kulbergs, CEO and founder of BaDideas.fund
The Fifty Founders Battle is the flagship event's annual pitch battle, open to early-stage startups that have not received more than 250,000 EUR in equity funding, and usually are less than 3 years old.
Applications will be open until March 10, and the 50 founders semi-finalists will be announced on March 29. They will participate in the Fifty Founders Bootcamp on April 26, with semi-finals held on April 27 and the final showdown on April 28 – the final day of TechChill Riga.
Other past TechChill pitch competition winners include Baltic success stories Infogr.am, TrackDuck, Edurio, Nordigen, Sprayprinter, Anatomy Next, Precision Navigation Systems, Longenesis, and last year – Vocal Image App.
“TechChill is our favourite conference (together with Latitude 59), it was the first one we attended as a team. Winning the Fifty Founders Battle gave us great exposure and on-stage experience, but the added prize of the Draper University tuition was the highlight and has given me an incredible global network that I can tap into whenever I need to.” - Nick Lahoika, Vocal Image
Applications for the TechChill Fifty Founders Battle are now open, and startups can submit their applications until March 10th, 2023.
