Category finalists competed across seven tracks including AgTech & FoodTech; CleanTech & Energy; EdTech; Enabling Tech; FinTech; HealthTech; and Mobility & Smart Cities.
Fotokite wins first place in category Mobility and Smart Cities
Competition evaluators narrowed a field of over 3,700 applicants from 92 countries building tech startups that are working to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The seven XTC Category Winners will share the stage at the Global Finals event alongside four Special Award Winners: COVID-19 Innovation Award, Female Founder Award, Ethical AI Award, and the People’s Choice Award which is new this year. For the first time, the public is invited to vote for their favorite startup finalist. The deadline to vote is July 11, 2021.
These Category and Special Awards Winners will pitch at the XTC 2021 Global Finals presented by TechCrunch, competing for the crown of XTC 2021 Global Winner.
“We’re currently in the fifth wave of technology evolution – an era driven by data and AI, which are accelerating the number of applications that can disrupt every industry due to the timely availability of actionable data-driven insights,” said Young Sohn, Co-Founder of Extreme Tech Challenge, Chairman of the Board at HARMAN International, and Former Corporate President and Chief Strategy Officer at Samsung Electronics. “This year’s XTC winners, applying AI, blockchain, deep analytics and more across our seven categories, strongly show how this fifth wave can make the world a radically better place.”
“The capital markets are signalling hard by giving incredibly big market valuations to companies that are profitable businesses, that also deliver sustainability-oriented innovation. The world’s financial markets now recognize that unless businesses do something good for this planet, that this planet may not exist – and that there are investable companies that can be part of the solution.” said Bill Tai, Co-Founder of Extreme Tech Challenge and Partner Emeritus at Charles River Ventures.
The event will feature world-renowned executives and investors including Young Sohn and Bill Tai, Co-Founders of XTC; Regina Dugan, President & CEO, Wellcome Leap and Former Director of The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); Lars Reger, CTO & Executive Vice President, NXP Semiconductors; Jerry Yang, Founding Partner, AME Cloud Ventures and Co-Founder & Former CEO, Yahoo!, and Michael Zeisser, Managing Partner, FMZ Ventures.
About Extreme Tech Challenge
Extreme Tech Challenge is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation whose mission is to empower startups creating new tech innovations to address global challenges. It is the world’s largest ecosystem and competition for purpose-driven technology inspired by the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Extreme Tech Challenge™ competition is supported by leading corporations, venture capital investors, foundations, policymakers, universities and tech conferences to give exceptional startups the potential for global visibility, the opportunity to raise capital, the ability to network with global leaders, and access to world-class mentorship to help them pioneer technological breakthroughs that address our most extreme global challenges. A complete list of XTC partners and how to join can be found at www.extremetechchallenge.org.
