Global Startup Awards receives nominations from all over the world.

If you have been nominated, the person nominating you believes you meet these criteria. You can increase your chances of being shortlisted and eventually winning by making sure you are nominated in the correct category.

If you have been nominated in the wrong category: Global Startup Awards HQ are not directly nominating the participants. It might happen from time to time that some nominations are a bit far from your reality. If you feel that the nomination is not really reflecting your current status, you are also free to nominate yourself, as our premise is that anyone can nominate anyone, anywhere.

Depending on the size of the region this number might differ. On average, we receive 3000-5000 applications per season per region.

To become a finalist or winner regionally or even globally is a very impressive accomplishment. Every year, the competition receives more than 30,000 nominations, so making it that far means you are among the best in the world. Based on our data, this recognition has directly influenced the finalists and winners' ability to raise money positively as it has created positive awareness towards clients, partner and talent. As a finalist or a winner, you also become part of our global alumni network, which gives access to exclusive events, investment opportunities and global connections.

You can read more about it here.

Participating in the competition is completely free of charge.

The process as a whole is depicted here. The milestones are as follows:

1. Candidates are nominated by ecosystem stakeholders, the public, or by themselves.

2. Candidates accept the invitation (sent to their inboxes) to the competition system and are forwarded to

   • Create a profile if this is their first nomination.

   • A new nomination is added to their already-existing profile

3. Complete all mandatory fields in all the questionnaires for all the categories they are applying/nominated to.

4. Click Save after each edition to their answers.

5. Make sure the word “finalised” appears under the name of the category.

6. Applications should be “finalised” before the deadline.

7. Only shortlisted startups/individuals get the results of their applications in their inboxes when announced.

The pitch deck is a document/presentation of the individual/company that the jury members will assess when they evaluate nominees. The pitch deck can be in the form of a presentation, and all pitch decks should be in PDF format, and it is mandatory that they are in English.

Global Startup Awards currently recognises two types of nominations: startups and individuals (founders). To be considered as one of them, check this page.

Regional Finales, Continental Finales (Applies in Africa only) and Global Finales are three levels of the Award Shows that can conclude a season in the perspective level. These events, shall be held, are usually announced and communicated to the finalists via email and announced on the website of the regional/global competition website and social media.

When your company is registered to local authorities, they give you a certification of formation (or some document with a similar name), which proves that your company’s operations are fully legal and administered by the authorities. Just share the link of that document with us from your Drive / Cloud.

Yes, we often see that great applications come from someone the startup’s team.

Read more about the definition of legal presence here.