Data streaming platform Confluent, Inc. has announced the Data Streaming Start-Up Challenge. It will recognise and reward early-stage start-ups that are building innovative applications with Confluent. Start-ups will compete for a top prize of up to $500,000 in Confluent equity investment, marketing exposure, and access to venture capitalists and Confluent co-founders who will offer skilled mentoring. 

Judges in the challenge include Matt Miller, partner at Sequoia Capital; Eric Vishria, partner at Benchmark Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas, partner of Index Ventures, Jay Kreps, co-founder and CEO of Confluent and Shaun Clowes, chief product officer of Confluent. 

Miller said, “I always keep an eye out for what we call an outlier mentality - founders that have a chip on their shoulder to do something different, solve a problem, and grow through challenges. The Data Streaming Start-up Challenge will bring together start-ups with this drive to challenge the status quo and unlock new opportunities with data streaming.” 

“Data streaming makes it easier for start-ups to turn data chaos into data products, enabling real-time processing and analysis for immediate insights,” added Graczewski, head of Confluent for Start-ups. “The Data Streaming Start-up Challenge rewards start-ups that aren’t simply using Confluent Cloud, but testing the limits of how real-time data can be harnessed. I’m excited to meet more start-ups in the data streaming ecosystem and hear how this community of trailblazers is reimagining entire fields.” 

Start-ups will compete for Up to $500,000 in equity funding as the first price. Runner-ups will get up to $250,000 in equity funding from the company. In addition, these start-ups will be given global exposure through the company's marketing channels.

Top semi-finalists will be awarded $5,000 in Confluent Cloud Free Trial Credits and two passes to Kafka Summit London. The submission Window will open on December 31, 2023, and the closing date is January 22, 2024