From Stavanger to San Francisco: RENASYS at the Startup World Cup Grand Finale
In August, Christopher Sveen won Startup World Cup Stavanger on the ONS stage. Last week he took RENASYS all the way to San Francisco, where he went up against 200 regional champions from six continents at the Grand Finale.
A new regional, and a winning pitch
This year, Startup World Cup came to Stavanger for the first time. ONS and Innovation Dock teamed up to host the regional competition as part of ONS Scale-Ups, powered by Silicon Valley VC firm Pegasus Tech Ventures.
The pitches ran in Hall 4 at ONS on 25 and 26 August. Eight finalists got four minutes each on the Scale-Up Arena stage, with Nils-Henrik Stokke from Innovation Dock moderating both days.
The same four judges followed both days: Pia Warland from Innovation Dock, Christian Bjelland from Lowercarbon Capital, Manon Chappat-Alarcon from Greentown Labs and Sven Sunde from Amazon Web Services. They picked the winner together after the final round on Wednesday.
Christopher's pitch for RENASYS won. Along with the title, the winner's package included:
A trip to the Grand Finale in San Francisco, with a shot at the USD 1 million investment prize
NOK 250,000 in AWS credits
Three months of office space at Innovation Dock
NOK 50,000 in legal advisory services from Thommessen
Read more about the Stavanger final: Renasys wins Startup World Cup Stavanger.
Three days in San Francisco
The Grand Finale ran from 4 to 6 November at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. 200 regional champions from six continents competed for the USD 1 million investment prize, in front of more than 5,000 founders, investors and corporate leaders.
The line-up on stage included Tesla co-founder Marc Tarpenning, Google Cloud CTO Will Grannis and Waymo CMO Suzanne Philion. The jury had investors from Khosla Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners, among others.
RENASYS did not make it through to the final round this time. With 200 champions in the field, few do. But Christopher still got his moment: a one-minute pitch on the main stage, putting a wastewater company from Førde in front of a room full of Silicon Valley investors.
Hilton San Francisco Union Square
That minute was the point of the whole exercise. Startup World Cup Stavanger exists to give companies from our region a global stage, and RENASYS used it.
In their words
"We brought Startup World Cup to Stavanger to give founders from our region a real shot at the global stage. Christopher grabbed it with both hands. Beating 200 champions to the final round is tough, but getting a wastewater company from Førde in front of Silicon Valley investors is exactly what this is about," says Nils-Henrik Stokke, co-founder of Innovation Dock.
For Christopher, winning in Stavanger was "crazy cool". And he is clear that San Francisco was a step, not the finish line: "It's been quite a journey getting RENASYS to this point, and we're only just getting started," says Christopher Sveen, co-founder and CEO of RENASYS.
About RENASYS
RENASYS is a cleantech company headquartered in Førde, Western Norway. Founded in 2020, it has developed a modular filtration system that slots into existing wastewater plants. It removes around 99% of particles larger than 5 microns, with no chemicals and no new construction.
The technology is being tested with Sunnfjord Municipality, and the company is scaling it into a full modular treatment facility in Norway. The goal is to cut around 20,000 tonnes of carbon emissions while recovering energy and useful materials from wastewater (Clinton Global Initiative).
About Startup World Cup Stavanger
Startup World Cup is a global series of regional pitch competitions run by Pegasus Tech Ventures. It ends each year in a Grand Finale in San Francisco with a USD 1 million investment prize.
Startup World Cup Stavanger is hosted by ONS and Innovation Dock as part of ONS Scale-Ups. Got a startup that belongs on that stage? Get in touch with Innovation Dock.
