The Entrepreneurship World Cup started out as an idea – and was developed and launched in 2019 by the Misk Foundation and Global Entrepreneurship Network with support from the Global Education & Leadership Foundation. GEN developed the competition infrastructure and led on the execution of the competition globally. The EWC 2019 Global Finals were held at the Misk Global Forum.
Following an incredibly successful first year that saw more than 100,000 contestants enter the competition, EWC 2020 nearly doubled in size despite occurring in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the EWC 2020 Global Finals were held virtually due to the pandemic, live, in-person pitching on the global stage returned in 2021.
Since launching in 2019, the Entrepreneurship World Cup has attracted 400,000 registrations from 200 countries and connected founders with over US$4M in cash prizes and another US$250M worth of perks plus free support and services.
The competition is now hosted globally by GEN and Monsha'at, the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises in Saudi Arabia. The EWC brand is used with permission from the Misk Foundation.