Elevate Pitch Day Showcases Startup Talent at AUK
On April 14, 2025, the Center for Academic and Professional Advancement (CAPA) at the American University of Kurdistan (AUK) hosted Elevate Pitch Day in its university auditorium. Elevate Pitch Day brought together the participant teams from the Elevate Incubator Program to pitch their startup prototypes to a distinguished panel of judges and investors. After a competitive round of presentations, the winning startups were awarded office and co-working spaces.
To reach Elevate Pitch Day, the teams first completed two intensive weeks of the CAPAi Innovation Challenge Bootcamp, where they identified key problems and developed initial Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). After pitching their MVPs during the CAPAi PitchFest, the top startups joined the Elevate Incubator Program to further refine their solutions and business models over twelve weeks with guidance from industry experts.
This year’s winners were Funders, a financial tech startup, awarded first place; GuideHub, a tourism and hospitality startup, awarded second place; and RojKidz, an education tech startup, awarded third place. The finalists also included ASHUP, competing in the tourism and hospitality sector.
Elevate Pitch Day serves as a major milestone for early-stage startups by giving them visibility, access to resources, and an opportunity to connect with the local entrepreneurial community. CAPA and its partners plan to continue running the CAPAi Innovation Challenge Bootcamp and Elevate Incubator Program, with future plans to launch an accelerator program and build a stronger, interconnected entrepreneurial ecosystem in Duhok.
Elevate Pitch Day marks only the beginning of a promising future for emerging innovators in the region.
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