
<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2018-pitch-winner-wayve-recently-raised-us-1-3-billion-so-what-are-some-of-the-other-big-successes-to-come-from-our-pitch-competition">2018 PITCH winner Wayve recently raised US$1.3 billion. So what are some of the other big successes to come from our PITCH competition?</h4>



<p>Since beginning Web Summit’s startup competition PITCH back in 2013, there have been 21 winners from around the world. Many have gone on to great success in the tech world.</p>



<p>Collectively, the PITCH winners have raised more than US$1.5 billion, as well as increasing their employee numbers, customer base, and product offerings.</p>



<p>Here’s the story of just some of our PITCH winners who went on to receive significant investments, and continued to grow their businesses.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-early-winners">The early winners</h4>



<p>Web Summit’s first ever PITCH winner was <a href="https://www.import.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Import.io</a>, taking the top prize at the 2013 Dublin event. It is a London-founded web data platform which aids data extraction. At the time of the event, Import.io employed 16 people and, since then, that number has risen to more than 70.</p>



<p>On winning, co-founder Andrew Fogg stated, “We are focused on growing our company and it means a lot to us to win an international competition like this.”</p>



<p>The growth Andrew alluded to has played out, with the company raising more than US$38 million in 2018 before being acquired by Texas-based SaaS growth fund Scaleworks in 2023. &lt;https://www.youtube.com/embed/HinOcCZdj94?si=ZAnWmnKgXPCra_RC</p>



<p>Another successful PITCH winner, <a href="https://www.codacy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Codacy</a> took the aware the following year, in 2014. Codacy is a DevOps intelligence platform that helps developers ship billions of lines of code per day by automating and standardising code reviews.</p>



<p>The Portuguese startup has raised US$29.4 million, closing a US$15 million Series B funding round in September 2022.</p>



<p>At the time of Codacy’s PITCH win, co-founder Jaime Jorge described it as “like the Oscars for startups in Europe”. Since participating, Codacy has grown from 3,000 to 6,000 users around the world.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-collision-glory">Collision glory</h4>



<p>PITCH is a competition run across all of Web Sumit’s events, including Collision in North America. It is here that some of our most successful alumni have come from.</p>



<p>In 2018, San Francisco-based personal coaching platform <a href="https://torch.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Torch</a> won PITCH at Collision in New Orleans, beating out 108 others. It has gone on to become a leading people development platform, raising almost US$90 million to date.</p>



<p>Torch closed out a US$25 million Series B round in 2021, before raising a further US$40 million Series C round in 2022 from 137 investors, including Initialized Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Obvious Ventures, all also Web Summit and Collision participants.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/collision/2424/05/28003517488_c6cff3524f_k.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;fit=scale&amp;h=682&amp;ixlib=php-3.3.0&amp;w=1024&amp;wpsize=large&amp;s=1caaf8af03fc6fa6b15b08993c489b83" alt="" class="wp-image-86375"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Cameron Yarbrough, co-founder and CEO of Torch, with the PITCH trophy at Collision 2018 in New Orelans <a href="https://flic.kr/p/JEzm83" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Image</a>: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stephen McCarthy</a>/<a href="https://websummit.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>)</em></figcaption></figure></div>


<p><br>Cameron Yarbrough, co-founder and CEO of Torch, said of PITCH that “[it] provided me an electrifying opportunity to evangelize my startup in front of thousands of technologists and VCs.”</p>



<p>Collision moved on from New Orleans soon after, with fellow US-based startup <a href="https://www.loliware.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Loliware</a> taking the first PITCH trophy awarded at our Toronto event. Loliware is a woman-led, environmentally focussed startup using seaweed resin to replace single use plastics.</p>



<p>“Winning Pitch is an incredibly exciting milestone for Loliware,” said co-founder and CEO of Loliware, Chelsea F. Briganti at the time.</p>



<p>Loliware has since secured investment from Mark Cuban and Closed Loop Ventures as well as partnerships with Marriott and Pernod. In 2023, the company also closed out a pre-Series A funding round with US$6 million, bringing their total funding to more than US$15.6 million.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-recent-raises">Recent raises</h4>



<p>A standout success story is Wayve. In 2018 Alex Kendall, co-founder of the self-driving car tech startup, said “winning PITCH at Web Summit sends a strong signal to the market as we enter into our next fundraising round and validates that others are as excited as we are about this opportunity.”</p>



<p>In May, 2024 the company secured more than US$1 billion in a funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank, and including tech behemoths Microsoft and Nvidia.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/collision/2424/05/45059313664_69ee8c0cf6_k.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;fit=scale&amp;h=701&amp;ixlib=php-3.3.0&amp;w=1024&amp;wpsize=large&amp;s=9395d86cb1ebd05d8df27dc230a00815" alt="" class="wp-image-86376"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Alex Kendall, co-founder at Wayve, with the PITCH trophy on Centre Stage at Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon <a href="https://flic.kr/p/2bDJL7m" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Image</a>: <a href="https://flickr.com/photos/websummit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Diarmuid Greene</a>/<a href="https://websummit.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>)</em></figcaption></figure></div>


<p><br>Elsewhere, an AI startup that helps textile manufacturers to significantly reduce waste and improve their environmental impact, <a href="https://www.smartex.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Smartex</a> took top prize at Web Summit 2021 in Lisbon.</p>



<p>“It feels good to get recognition for the work the team at Smartex has been doing,” said António Rocha, co-founder of the Portuguese startup, upon collecting the award.</p>



<p>“We know the real pitch happens with our clients, and that&#8217;s where our focus is.”</p>



<p>Since winning the competition, Smartex has raised US$27.6 million, through investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, H&amp;M Group and DCVC.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-web-summit-is-coming-to-vancouver-in-2025-don-t-miss-out">Web Summit is coming to Vancouver in 2025. <a href="https://vancouver.websummit.com/">Don&#8217;t miss out</a>.</h4>



<p><em><a href="https://flic.kr/p/2ntsSKx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Main image</a> of judges and speakers on the PITCH stage at Collision 2022: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lukas Schulze</a>/<a href="https://websummit.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>)</em></p>


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