In General XR News
September 6, 2023 – Augmented World Expo (AWE), a provider of worldwide XR events, has announced a USD $200,000 prize for its Start-up Pitch Competition at its upcoming AWE EU event in Vienna, Austria next month. The competition is open to any and all pre-Series A startups in the XR ecosystem.
AWE noted that while being held at AWE EU and with a special focus on pre-Series A European XR startups, any augmented, virtual and mixed reality (AR, VR & MR – collectively XR) company meeting the event criteria may enter for a chance to win a USD $200,000 investment from the venture capital fund of investor Christopher Obereder.
The Start-up Pitch Competition will feature AR/VR start-up founders pitching in person to a group of judges made up of XR industry executives and venture capitalists at the Vienna event on October 25. Obereder, plus additional judges Petri Rajahalme of FOV Ventures and Leen Segers of Women in Immersive Technologies Europe (WIIT) will judge the competition.
The judges’ chosen winner will not only win the USD $200,000 in investment from the Start-up Chris Fund, but also an Auggie Award that crowns the successful start-up with the title of “Start-up to Watch” for AWE EU 2023.
“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.
AWE noted that Obereder is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, founder of Start-up-Chris Ventures (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. He 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.
An early-stage investor in various high-profile companies such as Airbnb, Arista Networks, Coinbase, Okta and Splunk, Obereder has co-founded and sold four companies and helped startups raise more than USD $360 million in funding.
“To be able to partner with AWE EU 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!”
The Start-up to Watch Competition will be held at Augmented World Expo, which takes place from October 24-25. For more information on the competition, click here. To learn more about AWE and its AR/VR conference series in the USA, Asia, and Europe, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Augmented World Expo
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.