The winners of the Startup World Cup and NEXUS Awards 2026 were announced in Baku.

September 17–18 marked the conclusion of one of the region’s leading innovation festivals, Baku ID 2026, at the SABAH.city innovation campus.

The two-day program featured local and international speakers, including Balázs Hendrich, Head of the Representation of the Organization of Turkic States in Hungary, Khamis Said Abdalla, Secretary General of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, Walid Mansour, Co-founder and Managing Director of the MEVP venture fund, Sina Afra, Co-founder and Partner at Founder One, Tanat Uskenbayev, Managing Director of Astana Hub, and Dominik Piotet, Managing Partner and Co-founder of the Ukraine Phoenix Tech Fund.

The local ecosystem was represented by Fariz Jafarov, Executive Director of the Center for Analysis and Coordination of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Taleh Karimli, Head of the Department for Innovation Ecosystem Development at the Agency for Innovations and Digital Development, Ramik Guliyev, Head of the Health Policy Department at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Teymur Aliyev, Head of the Strategic Management and Innovation Department at SOCAR, and other speakers.

Baku ID 2026 also served as the venue for the Azerbaijan Regional Final of the international Startup World Cup. The regional final of the global competition, created by Pegasus Tech Ventures, was organized by SABAH.angels with the official travel partnership of Turkish Airlines.

The competition received 160 applications from 20 countries, with selection conducted by an international jury. In the final, 10 startups presented their projects to investors and experts. The winner of the competition was the startup 4sell.ai, founded by entrepreneurs from Kazakhstan. The team earned the right to participate in the Startup World Cup Grand Finale, scheduled for November 6 in San Francisco. This result once again highlighted Baku ID’s role as a platform bridging innovation ecosystems across the region.

The NEXUS Awards ceremony, held on the second day of the festival, was one of the key events of the program. Under the award, which recognizes promising startups, investors, and other participants in the regional innovation ecosystem, 80 startups competed for victory in 15 categories this year, with over 100,000 votes collected through public voting. A total of 12 winning startups were announced.

Among the winners were Forg3t Protocol in the AI Startup of the Year category, Ayan Capital and Paypercut in the FinTech Startup of the Year category, Wellbees in the Health and Wellness Startup of the Year category, Jusoor Labs in the EdTech Startup of the Year category, and Fuelin in the Mobility & Logistics Startup of the Year category. Middle East Venture Partners was recognized as the Venture Capital Fund of the Year, and Sina Afra received the Special Recognition Award.

During the event, a memorandum of cooperation was signed between SABAH.HUB, SABAH.fund, and the Turkish platform AI Startup Factory. The memorandum provides for support in startup development and the expansion of investment cooperation.

The holding of the Azerbaijan Regional Final of the Startup World Cup, the NEXUS Awards results, and the signed memorandum of cooperation once again demonstrated the significance of Baku ID 2026 as a platform fostering regional startup connections and investment cooperation.

It is worth noting that the strategic partners of Baku ID 2026 were the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, PAŞA Holding, SOCAR, and the Center for Analysis and Coordination of the Fourth Industrial Revolution 4SİM, operating under the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The main partners of the festival were the Agency for Innovations and Digital Development İRİA and TIMES company.

Detailed information about the festival is available on the website bakuid.com and on Baku ID’s official social media pages.