AWE Announces New $200,000 XR Startup Pitch Competition for AWE Europe to Jumpstart Early-Stage XR Companies

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Sep 05, 2023, 04:00 ET

Open to Early-Stage, Pre-Series A XR Startups, with Investment Capital Provided by Acclaimed German Investor Christopher Obereder; Judges Include Petri Rajahalme of FOV Ventures, Leen Segers of Women in Immersive Technologies Europe (WIIT) and Mr. Obereder of Start-up-Chris Ventures

NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Augmented World Expo (AWE), the leading series of worldwide events focused exclusively on the business of XR (comprising Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality), today announced the $200,000 XR Start-up Pitch Competition for AWE Europe (24-25 OCT, 2023 in Vienna), open to any and all pre-Series A startups in the XR ecosystem.

While being held at AWE Europe (note that the Early Bird Ticket discount of 400 Euros ends on 12 September - buy them now at tickets.awexr.com/), and with a special focus on pre-Series A European XR startups, any XR company meeting the event criteria may enter for a chance to win a $200,000 US investment from the venture capital fund of acclaimed investor Christopher Obereder.

The Start-up Pitch Competition will feature AR/VR startup founders pitching to a group of industry executives and venture capitalists. Applicants should submit pitches through AWE EU 2023 before the September 18 deadline. Leaders in the XR space will determine which pitches advance to the in-person pitch competition that will take place on October 25.

Companies may be nominated at https://awexr.com/eu-2023/startup_pitch.

Mr. Obereder and acclaimed additional judges Petri Rajahalme of FOV Ventures and Leen Segers of Women in Immersive Technologies Europe (WIIT) will judge the pitch competition where every startup founder will have 5 min to pitch followed by Q&A by the judging panel. The winner selected by the judges will not only win $200,000 in investment from Start-up Chris Fund (contingent on passing due diligence), but also an Auggie Award recognizing AWE EU 2023 "Start-up to Watch".

"Christopher has proven again and again that he has the insights, brilliance and vision to invest in some of the biggest unicorns in tech – now, he is showing that his dream of helping the finest XR startups to flourish will benefit not just European XR, but the entire worldwide industry. We are beyond grateful for his counsel and profound passion for XR's transformative impact to help take AWE Europe to a whole new level," said AWE co-founder Ori Inbar.

Chris is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist founder of Start-up-Chris Ventures <www.start-up-chris.com> (Germany and California) and an investor with more than 12 years of experience in the tech industry. Start-Up-Chris Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in startups at all stages and supporting them with growth hacking, M&A and fundraising. Chris is also a Forbes 30 Under 30 member and one of the leading growth hackers worldwide, with over 350 million app installs generated to date.

Mr. Obereder co-founded and sold four companies and helped startups raise more than $360 million in funding – he is an acclaimed early-stage investor in various high-profile companies such as Airbnb, Arista Networks, Coinbase, Okta and Splunk.

He is exceedingly passionate about creating innovative and impactful solutions for the world and empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs, thus his generous donation of the XR Competition prize money as well as his expertise and time in selecting the finalists to present at AWE Europe.

"To be able to partner with AWE Europe and Ori's acclaimed team in my home country of Austria is an outstanding opportunity to show the world that XR startups are at the leading-edge of transforming so many different industries across B2B as well as B2C markets," said Christopher Obereder, founder and CEO of Start-up-Chris Ventures. "I have every confidence that small, innovative companies in XR are just as able to transform legacy markets as the biggest players in the industry – I know the judges are just as excited as I am about this opportunity!"

Augmented World Expo is the world's leading AR/VR conference and expo with events in the USA, Asia, and Europe. AWE events consistently bring together a mix of CEOs, CTOs, designers, developers, creative agencies, futurists, analysts, investors and top press in a unique opportunity to learn, inspire, partner and experience firsthand one of the most exciting industries of our times.

All trademarks and registered trademarks previously cited are hereby recognized and acknowledged. For more information, please contact AWE PR Counsel Jonathan Hirshon at [email protected]

SOURCE AWE