Israeli finalist at Startup World Cup

Thursday, 28. January 2021 - 14:24

Personalized regenerative medicine startup Matricelf will compete for the $1 million grand prize in the Startup World Cup in November, a global competition sponsored by Pegasus Tech Ventures of Silicon Valley. The Startup World Cup includes finalists from more than 70 countries, yet Israel was never part of it before.

The first-ever Startup World Cup Israel pitch event was held January 12 through the efforts of Tel Aviv-based Tech It Forward, a boutique consulting agency promoting Israeli startups. “We brought this program to Israel for the first time, and got over 100 startup applications, ran 58 interviews and heard from the top 10 at a pitching event,” says Tech It Forward cofounder Jennifer Elias.

Those 10 startups received professional guidance and one-on-one meetings with Israeli legal consultants, financial advisers and marketing strategists before the final pitch event. The three top companies then got a chance to compete for the sole Israeli finalist slot in San Francisco, and Matricelf won. The other two were AI-powered brain-training solution for athletes i-BrainTech and alternative protein innovator Hargol FoodTech.

Abigail Klein Leichman

Photo: Asaf Toker, CEO of Matricelf