The first Startup World Cup was the final stage of the Builder Funnel: the competition where the Aleph Hackathon and the Buildathon Season converged. 219 startups applied from more than 40 countries: 97 from Latin America, 30 from the USA and Canada, 27 from Europe, 25 from Asia, 9 from Africa and 30 fully remote teams.
The competition ran in three stages. On November 15, 119 teams pitched at the Qualifiers at the Aleph Hub, and six advanced. On November 16, those six joined 55 fast-tracked startups for a 61-team Semifinal, where a jury of investors selected the 12 finalists. And on November 19 came the Grand Finale: the 12 pitched on Devconnect's main stage before a jury of 10 global investors: Sam Lehman (Pantera Capital), Robbie Petersen (Dragonfly), Jonathan Rotbard (CoinFund), Daniel Barabander (Variant), Jack Simison (Nascent), Louis Mohn (Franklin Templeton), Grayson Alto (Uniswap Foundation), David Alemany (1kx), Ariel Arrieta (NXTP) and Harrison Dahme (Hack VC).
Between pitches, Tomasz Stańczak (Ethereum Foundation), Juan Benet (Protocol Labs), Stani Kulechov (Aave) and Devin Walsh (Uniswap Foundation) had their panels, joined by Manuel Beaudroit (Belo), Dominic Schwenter (Lisk) and Hanna Schiuma (Lucero Ventures), founders and investors actively pushing innovation forward across emerging markets. Crecimiento's leadership also took the stage: Santiago Cristóbal and Kun Peng (Blockchain Builders Fund) represented the ecosystem that gave rise to many of the finalist teams.
The championship went to Peanut, with its promise of "global cash, local feel". The honorable mentions went to OneSafe, a crypto-friendly neobank for Web3 companies, and Functor Network, decentralized UX security. And among the 12 finalists were names this blog has already told: AlphaEngine, which entered the funnel through the DeFi Track; DobProtocol, which arrived from Rayuela and the Founders Track; BuFi, winner of Rayuela; and Ensuro and Berry, building inside the ecosystem since the first pop-up city.
Founders reported new investor conversations, refined pitches and global visibility throughout Devconnect week. The first edition validated the full journey: from hackathon to acceleration, and from there to the most visible stage of the global crypto ecosystem.
Relive the Grand Finale, with every pitch and panel: