It’s not every day you get to pitch for US$1 million in investment. But then again, the Startup World Cup in San Francisco is not your everyday startup pitch comp.
Three Australian startups – Adiona, Deeligence and GravityFit – were among 98 finalists from 100 regional competitions across 60+ countries to fly to San Francisco for the “number one startup competition in the world”, and the chance to score A$1.5m in funding from US VC Pegasus Ventures.
The consolation prize? A rare moment to pitch to a room of 500 investors and spend the week networking and attending workshops with the world’s top founders, VCs and tech leaders in Silicon Valley.
Startup Daily, in partnership with Startup World Cup sponsor Dell Technologies, followed Adiona and Deeligence’s journeys on the ground.
The power, the passion, the TROPHY. Image: Startup&Angels.
Before the pitch: Adiona
“It sounds more like a sports event, right?” said Richard Savoie, sitting in the back of a self-driving Waymo stuck in San Francisco traffic.
“But it’s actually much more than that. It’s the only ecosystem I’ve seen that brings together entrepreneurs from all over the world and allows you to really connect and share in a competitive way – a supportive competitive way.
“There’s only upside in something like this because we get together, we have this fun competition, somebody walks away with some prize money.”
The choice of transport could not be more appropriate: Savoie is the founder of Australian AI-driven logistics startup Adiona, a delivery optimisation platform for medium and large fleets that helps them convert to electricity and autonomous logistics.
Powering millions of deliveries for the likes of Australia Post and Coca-Cola, Adiona reduces both costs and emissions to help create more sustainable logistics networks globally.
It’s an innovation that won Adiona the Startup World Cup Sydney regional pitch competition, earning Savoie his spot in the ‘startup Olympics’.
“What would we do with the $1 million investment? It’s catalyst money,” he told us.
“It’s the type of money that you can then immediately go to other investors and get match funding incredibly quickly… it can’t be understated how that prize, the million bucks, is great but the other doors that it will open up would be even greater.”
STARTUP INSIDER: Adiona at the Startup World Cup (Post continues after video)
Before the pitch: Deeligence
“I feel so massively energised about being in this town,” said Elena Tsalanidis from lawtech due diligence platform Deeligence, winner of the Startup World Cup Melbourne.
“Even the drive from the airport to my hotel, it was just billboards of software and AI companies. This is the home of tech and the place that you really need to be if you’re thinking about raising external capital or building a world-class company.”
The former international lawyer sees the San Francisco opportunity as a US launchpad for Deeligence, which she founded with another ex-lawyer, Justin Hansky, in 2022.
Pitching it as “an AI-powered Monday.com but built specifically for due diligence”, Tsalanidis wants to fast-track the repetitive and laborious work of due diligence that merger and acquisition lawyers face.
“We work with the biggest and best law firms across Australia and New Zealand. We’re expanding to the UK and the US,” Tsalanidis said.
“For firms, we help them deliver due diligence in six days, not six weeks. We ensure that they double productivity and they deliver the work as efficiently as possible, protecting their margins.”
With deal sizes doubling, growth ballooning 45% month-on-month and a current funding round with US investors on board, Tsalanidis knew she had a pitch that was, well, pitch perfect.
STARTUP INSIDER: Deeligence at the Startup World Cup (Post continues after video)
‘Always be pitching’: The semi-final
The semi-final gave 98 startups two minutes on stage to pitch to investors, with a one-minute Q&A.
The top 10 would go on to pitch to 500 investors at the grand final.
At the semi-final, Savoie was a picture of calm.
“One of the exciting things about this whole process is that everybody here has beaten hundreds of companies to get here. They’re all experienced entrepreneurs. They’re used to being told no. They’re used to not winning sometimes. Nobody’s wandering around depressed if they don’t win. It’s all people who see the upside of this,” he said.
Tsalanidis similarly felt ready to give it her best shot.
“As a founder, you’re always pitching to someone, whether it’s a new team member or at a contest to an investor. Our job is to sell everything, Always be pitching,” she said.
Both founders were mentored by Epic Execution‘s David Kenney and Mike Parsons, who helped them perfect their Startup World Cup pitches.
“We’ve run a program for the last eight weeks where we get together once a week and we talk about business models, how they’re reaching customers, enterprise sales and essentially just helping them tighten up their messaging, get ready for the big pitch in Silicon Valley,” Kenney said.
Leo Denes, founder of B2B consultancy Australiance and events arm Startup&Angels, which hosted the Startup World Cup events in Sydney and Melbourne, saw the pitches in real time.
“Deeligence and Adiona presented very well. They were some of the best pitches delivered,” he said.
“I think it’s very interesting for Australian founders being in the US – there are a lot of similarities and differences. If anything, if you want to grow in the US market, this type of experience is life-changing.”
The involvement of tech heavyweights in the Startup World Cup adds extra gravitas. Satish Iyer, vice president for innovation and ecosystem at the office of the CTO/AI at Dell Technologies, a partner of the Sydney, Melbourne and San Francsisco events, sees it as an opportunity to connect enterprise and fast-growing scaleups.
“We recognise that the way of solving some of these problems are very different now,” Iyer told Startup Daily.
“It gives us a lot of exposure to these companies and what we do so that we can find the right partners as we solve our customer problems. So I think there’s no other way to do these things [than] by integrating and talking to these startups.”
‘You can’t buy that’: The result
The semi-finalists got their time in the spotlight at the Grand Final. Image: Startup&Angels.
While one of our neighbours from across the pond, New Zealand’s Scentian Bio, made the top 10, Australia’s startups narrowly missed out on the final.
But not all was lost. All 98 companies got to deliver a one-minute version of their pitch on stage at the Startup World Cup Grand Final.
“That one minute of exposure – you can’t buy that. It’s not for sale,” Savoie said.
Just moments after her 60-seconds, Tsalanidis said it was “potentially the hardest pitch you have to deliver because you’ve got to be really tight with what you’re presenting, your message and your solution”.
Adiona and Deeligence didn’t come home with the US$1 million – that went to Californian EV battery startup Coreshell. But they found plenty of upsides.
“I have done customer meetings, I’ve met with law firms, I closed a customer all the way from San Francisco, and of course met with investors as well as participating in the Startup World Cup,” Tsalanidis said.
“It’s been a great excuse to meet all the right people to make sure that Deeligence works in the US.”
Customer and investor meetings were also top of Savoie’s highlights list – among other things.
“I filled in my San Francisco bingo card with my trip on a cable car, my burger and bacon, and the Waymo ride, of course,” he said.
“It’s been really exciting to meet all of the regional winners from around the world. I’ve learned a lot.
“We’re going to continue to build out our go-to market for North America. We’re making those contacts here to have that credible plan. We’re building out our team and meeting the people who could be the next Adiona team here in the US.
“It’s onwards and upwards for us.”
Read, watch and learn more about the Startup World Cup right here:
With thanks to Dell Technologies, Startup World Cup sponsor
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This article is brought to you by Startup Daily in partnership with Dell Technologies.
