Donor: Snowflake

About: The Snowflake Startup Challenge is a global competition designed to foster innovation by encouraging developers and early-stage startups to create groundbreaking data applications that address unmet market needs. This challenge serves as a platform for startups to showcase their unique SaaS and AI applications, which leverage large volumes of complex data to solve high-impact problems. By utilizing Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud as the core platform, participants can harness its advanced capabilities to develop transformative solutions. The competition offers startups the opportunity to gain marketing exposure, connect with sponsoring venture capitalists, and potentially secure funding from Snowflake. The challenge is a collaboration between Snowflake and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), aiming to empower AI startups worldwide. Participants compete for significant investments and global exposure, with the winner and finalists receiving up to $1 million in investments from Snowflake, mentorship from industry leaders, and the chance to ring the NYSE Bell. The challenge is open to early-stage startups with the ability to execute their vision and build innovative applications powered by Snowflake’s Data Cloud. The winner and finalists may receive up to $1 million in investments from Snowflake, along with global marketing exposure. The competition is designed to recognize the innovation of the startup community and showcase the creative possibilities for building groundbreaking applications. The startups compete and the winner and finalists may receive up to $1 million in investments from Snowflake, along with global marketing exposure. The remarkable showcase for talent debuting this year, the Snowflake Startup Challenge brings together early-stage startups to build innovative applications and products powered by Snowflake’s Data Cloud.

Focus: AI Innovation, Data Applications, Climate Resilience, Disaster Response, Insurance Solutions

Region: Global

Eligibility: Early-stage startups with less than $5 million in cash funding and that have not received any cash funding through the sale of equity securities, including through a Series A or other priced round of funding. Startups must build an application that is dependent on Snowflake as a core part of its architecture and submit a demo video and a description of their application before the deadline. Semifinalists will be required to submit an investor-pitch video recording and provide access to their application. The application must be dependent on Snowflake such that Snowflake is integral to its production workload. Snowflake should be the primary data store to power in-app analytics or other workloads. The application uses Snowflake first party capabilities for streaming, storage and computation. There are no fees required to participate. Eligible participants will have access to an extended trial account with $400 in Snowflake credits up to March 1, 2025.

Benefits: Up to $500,000 for the winner, Up to $250,000 for each of the other two companies in the top 3, Blog featuring your application and team, Feature on select marketing channels, Present at Snowflake Summit in front of investors and customers, 2 free passes for Snowflake Summit, 1:1 consultation session with the CEO of Snowflake, Dedicated mentorship from an industry leader at a company listed on the NYSE, Ring the NYSE Bell, Additional co-marketing opportunities from Snowflake and NYSE