Philly’s Carbon Reform will compete for a chance to win the $1M Startup World Cup

A local greentech company will be representing Philadelphia at a global championship this fall.

Center City-based Carbon Reform won the Philadelphia Startup World Cup Pitch Competition on Wednesday, taking home a $20,000 check and a spot in the Startup World Cup. In October, the greentech company will pitch to investors against startups from across the world in San Francisco for a chance to win a $1 million investment. 

The company credits resources in Philly’s startup ecosystem for helping it grow, cofounder and COO Nick Martin said.

“The city of Philly is often described for its grit,” Martin told Technical.ly. “[Founders] embody this grittiness of the city, and I’m excited to showcase what that translates to in a startup on the world stage.” 

Carbon Reform, founded in 2020, developed a modular carbon capture device that removes carbon buildup from the air. The former Technical.ly awards winner raised a $3 million seed round in 2022. 

Eight other companies pitched on Wednesday at the historical Mitten Hall at Temple University. The city’s Department of Commerce put out applications for the pitch competition at the beginning of the summer and selected 10 startups from 41 applicants. Only nine of the finalists pitched at the competition.

The two runners-up also won cash prizes, though they won’t be moving forward to the global event. Ideate, a platform that uses AI to automate operational tasks for designers, won $5,000 in second place. The third place winner QuneUp, a software company that uses QR codes to track information about production equipment, took home $2,000. 

The other companies that pitched included: 

• Agora World, a platform that offers no code design tools to turn data into 3D visualizations. 
• Liiv, property management software company to automate housing authorities’ tasks. 
• Neftwerk, an open source tool to sell and purchase art. 
• Upright VR, which develops VR rehabilitation tests and exercises to help people regain balance and prevent falls. 
• FSH Tech, customized open source software directed at municipalities.
• PamPam, a generative AI tool to make personalized maps. 

Carbon Reform plans to keep growing here amongst the talent pool, investors and fellow startups, Martin said. The regional pitch competition is an example of local resources that founders can tap into to grow their company. 

“I’m always promoting building businesses right here in Philly,” Martin said, “and especially being in the hardware and the climate tech space, I love saying that you don’t have to go to New York or Boston or [San Francisco] to build it.”

Philly aims to win — but will settle for more clout

This is the first year that Philadelphia participated in the Startup World Cup, a global conference for founders, investors and tech leaders hosted by investment firm Pegasus Tech Ventures. 

But Philadelphia regularly has pitch events from business resource organizations, like the Enterprise Center, which hosted its first competition for minority tech founders last fall. 

There’s a community around pitch tournaments in the Philly startup ecosystem, said Helena Jaramillo, cofounder of PamPam. She often sees the same companies around at various events and it’s cool to see how their pitches and ideas change and improve, she said.  

Joining this global competition, though, steps up the city’s recognition as a place for startups to grow.

Competing against other cities domestically like New York, but also from around the world like Hong Kong, shows investors that Philadelphia has the talent and ideas to be a strong tech hub, Tempest Carter, director of strategic technology initiatives for the Philadelphia Department of Commerce, told Technical.ly. 

“We wanted folks that were dealing with big problems, folks that showcased the diversity of Philadelphia that was naturally occurring,” Carter said. 

That’s why the department specifically selected companies that would be competitive at the global level and have an actual chance of making it to the final round. It also considered diversity in terms of age, gender, race and product offerings, she said. 

Both the Department of Commerce and Pegasus Tech Ventures are interested in hosting the competition again next year, Carter said. In the future, she’d like to see more hardware and robotics companies participate, she said. 

“I want to attract so much money into Philadelphia.” Carter said. “We’re okay to put skin in the game if it means that we’re going to bring more dollars into the city for the businesses that are growing here, so that they can continue to grow and thrive here and hire here.”