The Startup Pitch Competition at Bits & Pretzels has been held since the very first edition. With the European Pitch Contest, we elevate the competition to a completely new level. The best early-stage startups from Europe and beyond will fight for their spot in the final. The competition has proven itself to be a real boost for your company over the past years. Out of hundreds of applications, a jury of reputable investors select the best startups to compete at Bits & Pretzels in the European Pitch Contest.

If you are a startup with an MVP or an existing product founded 2019 or later with less than 100 employees that has not exceeded Series A funding, and must have received less than 15 mio € in cumulative equity funding, then you are eligible to apply for the European Pitch Contest. For further details on the terms of participation, please visit the terms and conditions of the European Pitch Contest.

There is an application form for you to fill in. Drop your company name, website and contact information via the “Apply button” above and you’ll get access to the application form for the European Pitch Contest. You’ll be asked for more detailed information on your company to review if you’re eligible to apply and to receive all relevant information needed to select the contestants.

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The contestants who will be invited to pitch in the preliminary rounds at Bits & Pretzels 2024 will be selected by an international jury of investors. In the thematically clustered preliminary rounds, the startups compete against each other with a 3-minute pitch in front of an expert jury who follows up with a Q&A. The top competitors of the different thematically clustered preliminary rounds will be selected as semi finalists that then compete in playoffs for a place in the grand final. Once again, it’s our jury who decides who makes it on the main stage. The best competitors will be invited to join the grand final on the main stage who’s winner will be selected by the international executive jury. Further details on the selection criteria can be found here.

Only selected jurors with legitimate interest can access your submitted data for their evaluation to guarantee a high quality of the startups pitching for the European Pitch Contest.

Your data will be handled confidentially. Third party service providers only process data to the extent necessary to fulfill the purpose for which you submitted your data and to comply with applicable laws. You can find all further details on data processing in our terms of participation as well as data privacy.

• The application process starts on Thursday, 13 June, 2024
• The deadline for registration for the European Pitch Contest is on Sunday, 21 July 2024
• The contestants invited to pitch in the preliminary rounds at Bits & Pretzels will be announced in August 2024
• The preliminary rounds of the pitch competition will take place on 29-30 September 2024 at the Bits & Pretzels Festival.
• The playoffs (semi finals) will take place on Monday, 30 September 2024 at the Bits & Pretzels Festival.
• The grand final of the European Pitch Contest will take place on Monday 30 September 2024  on the main stage at the Bits & Pretzels Festival

Contact: awards@bitsandpretzels.com