Become the startup of the year at World Football Summit

The StartCup by World Football Summit, LaSource, and EBAN Sports is the official startup competition held as part of the WFS Madrid 2025 event. Its main goal is to identify, promote, and provide visibility to startups that are developing innovative solutions with the potential to transform the football ecosystem. These solutions may address key areas such as technology, sustainability, data analytics, sports performance, fan experience, or new ways of consuming football. The StartCup aims to act as a launch platform for early-stage or growth-stage startups by facilitating connections with investors, clubs, federations, and other key stakeholders in the industry.

Participation Process

Participation
Process

Application

Interested startups must complete a registration form available on the official competition landing page. The form will request essential information about the proposed solution, the founding team, the product development stage, its viability, business model, and potential impact on the football industry. The application period opens on June 23, 2025, and closes on August 8, 2025. Projects with a clear focus, initial validation, and a distinctive value proposition are especially encouraged to apply.

Pre-Selection

After the application period ends, an evaluation committee will review all submitted proposals. This review will be conducted through a digital platform that enables the evaluation of each entry based on criteria previously defined by EBAN Sports (the sports committee of the European Business Angel Network), a strategic partner of the event. Evaluation criteria will include the level of innovation, scalability, alignment with current sports industry challenges, strength of the founding team, and market traction. The top 6 rated projects will be selected as semifinalists and publicly announced on September 5, 2025.

Judges on pre-selection are either business angels or VCs members of EBAN Sports.
A wider judge panel will be announced soon for the final round of the competition.

Regardless the success of your application, all applicants will be invited to two webinars by EBAN Sports investors to get your project investment ready in the sports industry (date & time TBC).

Final at WFS Madrid 2025

Selected semifinalists will be invited to present their projects at the in-person StartCup Final, which will take place during WFS Madrid 2025, scheduled for October 15 and 16, 2025. Each startup will be given 6 minutes to deliver a live pitch in front of a jury composed of investors, club executives, and representatives from the sports ecosystem. The jury will evaluate both the quality of the presentation and the startup’s ability to respond during the Q&A session. Winners will be announced at the end of the session.

Key Information

Key
Information

Participation requirements

Startups eligible to participate must meet the following criteria:

Must be able to prove revenues have been generated for at least 1 year.
Offer an innovative solution with potential to transform football, whether from a professional, amateur, or grassroots angle.
Have a committed team with international ambition. You can apply from anywhere in the world.
Must not have been winners of previous editions of the StartCup.

Prizes

Winners:

Top 10:

Two complementary tickets.
30% discount for additional tickets.
Start Up Corner participation.
Pitch competition with top 10.
Meet investors and VCs from around the world.
Visibility in front of top tier investors.
Mentorship and free advisory.
All tournament participants receive access to virtual
workshops with startup advisors from EBAN.