Pegasus Tech Ventures

Choose the right door

• You are a registered company that wants to pitch: the Startup World Cup is the route in. Apply to a regional round.
• You founded a company and are a Harvard alumnus: the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator, powered by Pegasus, is the other founder-facing programme on its site.
• You want investment from Pegasus itself: its pages describe no application route for that. There is no pitch form and no intake window for a direct investment.

How applications work

• Applications are accepted regardless of where the startup is based, and you are asked to apply to the closest regional round.
• There is no single India round. The competition runs city rounds through local partners — Bengaluru, Greater Noida, Pune, New Delhi and Chhattisgarh have all featured.
• Applying is free. Some regionals sell optional exhibition booths, which are not required.
• Only finalists are contacted, by the regional partner, with follow-up details and instructions for the onsite pitch.
• Check the regional page for current dates before you plan around it. The Bengaluru round for 2026 closed its submissions on 10 July and held its regional finale on 8 August 2026.

What the eligibility rules actually say

• Startups in any domain, at any stage, are encouraged to apply.
• The one hard rule is that the startup must be a legal entity, not just an idea. Register the company before you apply.

How selection works

• Most regional competitions feature the top 10 to 20 startups among the applicants.
• Finalists pitch at an onsite event, and the regional winner goes on to the Grand Finale in Silicon Valley.
• Flights and hotels to the Grand Finale are not covered by the competition.

Understand the prize before you build a plan around it

• The finale prize is an investment, not a grant. It may be offered in exchange for a portion of equity based on your most recent round, or as a convertible note.
• The shape of the deal depends on the size of your company and how much funding you have already raised, so the terms are not fixed in advance.
• It is subject to satisfactory due diligence on the winner. Winning the pitch does not by itself close the investment.

For the Harvard alumni accelerator

• It is a ten-week, equity-free programme for early-stage companies founded by Harvard alumni.
• The programme page describes it as open to companies from all geographies and from any industry, with up to ten for-profit companies in the inaugural cohort.
• Apply through the application form on Pegasus's accelerator page. Programme questions go to Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs.
• The best Demo Day presentation is invited to compete at the Startup World Cup championship event in San Francisco, 4 to 6 November 2026.

Pegasus Tech Ventures is a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that partners with large corporations to invest in and work with high-growth technology companies. It was founded by Anis Uzzaman, who recognised a gap in how corporations engage with innovation, and its head office is at 2680 N. 1st St., Suite 250 in San Jose, California. For a founder in India the way into Pegasus is not a fund application. It is the Startup World Cup, the global pitch competition the firm organises, with city rounds across India and a Grand Finale in Silicon Valley.

What the firm does

Pegasus offers corporations a way to take part in venture investing without building internal investment teams of their own, while keeping their long-term strategic aims in view. The firm invests in and engages with high-growth technology companies through those corporate partnerships, and it reports IPOs and strategic exits among the companies it has backed.

Its pages describe no way for a founder to apply for investment from Pegasus directly. There is no pitch form for an existing startup, no intake window and no stated way to seek a cheque from the firm itself. The portfolio page is a list of companies already backed. Two founder-facing doors do exist on its sites: the Startup World Cup, and a ten-week accelerator it powers for Harvard alumni.

The Startup World Cup

The Startup World Cup is the competition Pegasus is known for. Startups apply to a regional round, regional winners go through to a Grand Finale in Silicon Valley, and the winner of that finale is offered the investment prize the competition is built around.

The prize is not a grant. Under the competition's own terms it may be offered in exchange for a portion of equity based on the most recent funding round, or as a convertible note, depending on the size of the company and how much funding it has raised, and it is subject to satisfactory due diligence. Applying and pitching take no equity. Winning the top prize does.

How many regional rounds run across the circuit is not something the competition's own pages agree on. One page counts more than 100 regionals across six continents, another counts more than 200 regional events, and the terms and conditions refer to more than 40 regional competitions.

How the competition works

Applications are accepted regardless of where the startup is based, and founders are asked to apply to the closest regional. The competition says it encourages startups in any domain, at any stage, to apply, with one hard rule: the startup must be a legal entity, not just an idea. Applying is free, though some regionals sell optional exhibition booths.

Numbers vary by round, but the majority of regional competitions feature the top 10 to 20 startups among the applicants. Finalists are contacted by the regional partner and pitch at an onsite event. Regional winners go on to the Grand Finale, and getting there is on the finalist: the competition does not cover flight tickets or hotels to the Grand Finale in Silicon Valley.

The circuit's own summary counts are self-reported and undated. They are 50,000+ attendees, 2,500+ investors and 500+ speakers.

The rounds in India

There is no single India round. The competition runs city rounds through local partners, and its site has carried rounds for Bengaluru, Greater Noida, Pune, New Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

The Bengaluru round for 2026 was listed on the competition site as the India – Bangalore Regional Competition. It took submissions until 10 July 2026 and held its regional finale in JP Nagar, Bengaluru, on 8 August 2026. The regional partner's own event listing describes the round as run in collaboration with CEDAT, with the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission as strategic partner. Pegasus Tech Ventures is the global organiser. Startups selected as finalists were contacted by the regional partner with details for the onsite pitch.

The Harvard alumni accelerator

Pegasus also powers the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator, a ten-week, equity-free programme for early-stage companies founded by Harvard alumni and ready to scale up to the next level. Its page describes the programme as open to startup companies from all geographies and from any industry, with up to ten for-profit companies accepted into the inaugural cohort. The company with the best presentation on Demo Day is invited to compete at the Startup World Cup championship event in San Francisco in early November 2026. The programme is run with Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, and questions about it go to them rather than to Pegasus.

Who runs it, and where

Pegasus Tech Ventures was founded by Anis Uzzaman and is a US company with its contact addresses in San Jose. Its about page lists further offices in Japan, in Tokyo; Taiwan, in Taipei; Indonesia, in Jakarta; China, in Chengdu; Europe, in Olpe, Germany; and Bangladesh, in Dhaka. India does not appear among those names.

General enquiries go to the firm's general contact address in San Jose, and press enquiries to its media and press address. Questions about the competition go to the competition's own general enquiries inbox.