Startup World Cup Championship 2026: Davos to Host the Next Generation of Global Entrepreneurs

From 9 to 12 July 2026, Davos, Switzerland, will become a meeting point for a new kind of global leadership: young founders, visionary educators, business angels, investors, diplomats, trade representatives, policymakers, and innovation leaders. The 26th Startup World Cup Championship 2026 will gather some of the world’s most forward-looking entrepreneurial and intellectual communities to evaluate youth-led startups and select the best projects of the year as World Champions 2026.

The Championship is part of a broader international movement dedicated to practical entrepreneurship education, innovation, and business diplomacy. According to the official Davos event listing, the Startup World Cup Championship brings together young and mature entrepreneurs, inventors, investors, entrepreneurs, and government representatives from more than 35 countries, with projects assessed by an international jury across innovation, feasibility, scalability, and business potential. (davos.ch)

The 2026 competition will involve 35 educational partners from different countries, stretching across continents — from the United Kingdom to Australia, from the United States to Azerbaijan, from Ukraine to Taiwan, from Lithuania to Turkmenistan, from Switzerland to Kazakhstan, from South Africa to Germany, from the UAE to Iraq, and from the Philippines to Thailand. This geography reflects the Championship’s central idea: startup culture is no longer limited to Silicon Valley or major financial capitals. It is becoming a global educational language.

A New Era of Young Entrepreneurs

What makes this Championship truly unique is the age of its youngest founders. The youngest entrepreneurs and participants are students aged 6 to 17 from the world-renowned network of business schools for young entrepreneurs — MiniBoss Business School. Guests and delegates will have the opportunity to meet these young startup founders in Davos and see how early entrepreneurial thinking can be transformed into real projects, teams, pitches, and business models.

In the youth startup league for participants aged 18+, leading teams come from BigBoss Business School and Einstein Science School, where students develop business, science, innovation, and leadership skills through practical startup creation. The Startup World Cup Championship officially presents two age leagues: the MiniBoss Junior League for children and teenagers aged 6–17 and the BigBoss Senior League for youth aged 18+. (startupworldcup.biz)

An Elite Jury of Global Leaders

The startups will be judged by a panel of highly respected entrepreneurs and policymakers, including: Andrew Azarov (UK), Larisa Miller (USA), Evan Yang (Republic of China),  Christina Batruch (Switzerland), Vladyslav Rashkovan (USA), Abdullah Alsharif (Saudi Arabia), Arvils Pekuless (Lithuania), Arda Batu (Turkey), Batyr Ravshanov (Turkmenistan), Olga Azarova (UK), Liudmyla Stanislavenko (Ukraine), Durga Das (USA-India), Igor Tkachuk (Ukraine), Oksana Zoppini (France), Aminath Ali (Maldives), Cherry Chang (Republic of China), Wendy Silinyana (South Africa), Elena Lee (Kazakhstan), Elena Chirich (Australia), Lyazzat Alshinova (Kazakhstan), Narmina Hasanova (Azerbaijan), Watceilia Varso (Australia), Jamilya Kerimova (Turkmenistan), Elena Vykhrystyuk (Ukraine), Dinora Saitova (Kazakhstan), Tatiana Markova (Ukraine), Viktoriya Trotska (USA), Olga Nemchenko (Switzerland), Nazzara Ergasheva (Kyrgyzstan), Irina Khazhalia (Georgia), Svitlana Yashchenok (Austria) many other distinguished experts, entrepreneurs, educators and representatives of business communities.

The Revolution in Global Education

The world has seen a significant shift in startup culture, yet dedicated startup education for children only emerged in 2000. This was made possible through the pioneering efforts of entrepreneurs and scientists Dr. Olga Azarova and Andrew Azarov. Their creation of the MINIBOSS and BIGBOSS Business Schools, along with dozens of other educational franchises, ignited a revolution in the market.

This innovation has made the global education market adaptive and rapidly evolving. It focuses on the practical application of knowledge, where every seed of learning is transformed into a viable startup and showcased on the world stage at the Startup World Cup Championship. Today, private schools and universities with the vision and investment potential are increasingly joining this initiative to modernize education.

The rise of the Startup World Cup Championship reflects a much wider global transformation. Startup ecosystems are now a core part of economic development strategy, education policy, and international competitiveness. Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 describes its analysis as covering more than 5 million companies across 350+ startup ecosystems, while StartupBlink’s 2025 index tracks more than 1,500 startup ecosystems worldwide. (startupgenome.com)

At the same time, employers around the world continue to warn that traditional education systems are not adapting quickly enough to the realities of the modern economy. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, based on input from more than 1,000 global employers representing over 14 million workers. (WEF)

This is why the Championship’s symbolic location matters. Davos has long been associated with global dialogue on the future of the economy, technology, leadership, and skills. In 2019, discussions around workforce readiness, skills gaps, and the need to rethink education became especially visible in Davos and across World Economic Forum conversations. Today, the Startup World Cup Championship and its affiliated ecosystem of practical business schools offer a direct response to that challenge: instead of preparing students only for exams, they prepare them to create value, build teams, solve problems, present ideas, attract attention, and launch startups.

The roots of this educational movement go back to 2000, when child and youth startup education began to take shape through the efforts of the entrepreneurial and academic family of Dr. Olga Azarova and Andrew Azarov. This innovation changed the logic of learning. Education became more adaptive, practical, and fast-developing. Knowledge was no longer treated as abstract information to be memorized; it became a seed that could grow into a startup, a social initiative, a commercial project, or a technological solution. Every lesson could become a prototype. Every idea could become a pitch. Every student could become a founder.

Today, this approach is attracting private educational institutions, schools, universities, investors, and entrepreneurial families that want education to become modern, applied, and future-oriented. The Startup World Cup Championship is the world stage where this new educational philosophy becomes visible: young people do not simply talk about the future — they build it, present it, defend it, and compete for it.

In July 2026, Davos will not only host a competition. It will host a statement about the future of education, entrepreneurship, and human potential. The Startup World Cup Championship 2026 will show that the next generation of world entrepreneurs may be younger than anyone expected — and more prepared than the old system ever imagined.

Hosting the 2026 Championship in Davos is deeply symbolic. In 2019, Davos served as the backdrop for a major global consensus: employers expressed profound dissatisfaction with the quality of the workforce. They cited a total mismatch between the traditional education system and the realities of the modern global economy and technological landscape.

The Startup World Cup Championship and its affiliated ecosystem of business schools directly address this "skills gap." By fostering practical skills and an entrepreneurial mindset from a young age, this movement is providing the solution the global community has been searching for, proving that the future of education is practical, innovative, and global.

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