Applications now closed!

The Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Startup Competitions @ CES 2023 invited eight entrepreneurs across four different verticals to present their business pitch live on stage at CES in Las Vegas on January 5-8, 2023. CES® is the most influential tech event in the world — the proving ground for breakthrough technologies and global innovators.

This is where the world’s biggest brands do business and meet new partners, and the sharpest innovators hit the stage. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, CES features every aspect of the tech sector.

About Extreme Tech Challenge

Why Apply

  • Global Visibility: Live pitch at CES
  • Access to Corporate Executives: Exposure to corporate executives, VCs and more attending CES.
  • Potential for Corporate Strategic Partnership: Network with influential industry leaders, with potential for business development and collaboration

Eligibility

  • Must be a privately-funded startup company
  • Working on tech innovations in Digital Health, Fintech, Sustainability, or Web3
  • See Official Rules

Verticals

Digital Health

Digital care technologies for health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and to make medicine more personalized and precise.

Fintech

Technology used to augment, streamline, digitize or disrupt traditional financial services.

Sustainable Smart Cities

Innovative tech solutions or features incorporated into products that are environmentally-friendly or technologies designed to be incorporated in a smart city, or smart venue, technology ecosystem.

Web3

Innovative tech solutions that incorporate concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics.

Judges

Bill Tai

Partner Emeritus Charles River Ventures; Angel Investor; Co-Founder, Extreme Tech Challenge

Young Sohn

Founding Managing Partner, Walden Catalyst Ventures; Co-Founder, Extreme Tech Challenge; Chairman of the Board, HARMAN International.

Evaluation Criteria

Finalists and Winners will be selected based on the Judges’ assessment of the following equally-weighted criteria:

  • TECH FOR GOOD / RESPONSIBLE INNOVATION FOR A RADICALLY BETTER WORLD – Is this innovative product addressing a significant global challenge to society and/or the environment, and can this startup’s product have a wide-reaching impact on same?
  • PRODUCT/MARKET FIT – Is there traction and enough scale in the addressable market for sufficient growth/profit to be an attractive investment?
  • PRODUCT INNOVATION – Is this a disruptive innovation that is differentiated from competitive or substitute offerings?
  • TEAM – Is this team uniquely qualified to develop this project? Do they strongly understand their users and the industry and ecosystem in which they operate? Do they have the determination and endurance to carry this through to completion?