WAICF Awards 2026
WAICF Awards 2026
Innovative AI startups, the WAICF Awards 2026 are calling! This year, the competition highlights your cutting-edge projects in 3 categories. Showcase your groundbreaking solution to win a prestigious trophy in front of a panel of expert judges.
Guidelines
The WAICF Awards 2026 are designed for startups developing innovative AI projects in these three categories: EXCELLENCE AWARD – Grand Jury Prize, STARTUP AWARD and IMPACT AWARD.
The Jury will select one laureate per category among the applications competing for the Awards, based on the criteria defined below.
- The “AI” nature of the project: Automated, Assisted, Augmented, Autonomous
- The innovative nature of the project: In the professions (marketing, logistics, production, finance, legal, innovation...), tools (Open Source), uses (customization, improvement...) and economic models (BtoC, BtoB, BtoBtoC or multi-faceted market) New analyses provided (Data Scientist approach) Benefits observed by the stakeholders.
- The assessment of the Artificial Intelligence approach:
- Funding (private/public)
- AI project deployment scope (specific segment, large-scale deployment...)
- Economic and financial gains
- Futurs steps and developments
- Other information about the project (newspaper articles, patent filed...) - For the IMPACT AWARD: The positive component of the AI project for the good of mankind and/or the planet.
For the STARTUP AWARD, eligibility conditions are (at least one condition to be fulfilled):
- Founded or having officially launched its product(s) less than 5 years ago
- With less than 30 employees
- Funding Stage: between Seed stage and Series B (up to 20M€ of financing)