The 1st place winner will be crowned the Supernova Overall Champion and receive a USD 10,000 cash prize.

Additionally, there will be Special Awards presented to selected standout startups:

-Sponsored participation at GITEX GLOBAL 2025 in Dubai

-Sponsored participation at GITEX Future Health 2026 in Morocco

-Complimentary 2sqm Startup Pod at GITEX DIGI HEALTH Singapore 2026

The team will be in touch regarding you prize and next steps 1 week after the event.

If you are not shortlisted, there are many opportunities to engage with investors, buyers, and visitors at GITEX Digi Health and the wider Medical Fair audience. We will be keeping a waitlist in case of any last- minute changes. Please note that we receive hundreds of applications and the shortlisting goes through multiple rounds of review to reach only a final 20 for the semi-finals and 10 for the finals.

Your Pitch Deck must be in ENGLISH.

Here are two good references for you:
- https://www.ycombinator.com/library/2u-how-to-build-your-seed-round-pitch-deck
- https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4T-how-to-design-a-better-pitch-deck

The deadline to submit on the Exhibitor Portal is 18 th August, 2025 by Bangkok 23:59 time.

Your Pitch Video must be ONLY 60 Seconds or it will not be considered. Your Pitch Video must be in English. Please shoot your video to have a clear shot of your upper body (sitting or standing).

Please submit your video by either a YouTube or a Vimeo URL. Check out Paul Graham’s advice on story telling when pitching. Reference form Y Combinator Startup Library: “Your goal, and your only goal, is to make investors feel it’s not safe to cross you off. And there is a verb for convincing someone that something is not safe. It sounds dramatic, but your goal is to frighten them. What frightens them? The possibility that you might become really big. They know there are maybe a few companies that will become really big….Before you start meeting investors, put together a rough draft of your fundraising vertebrae. These are the 3-4 points that compromise the narrative of why your company will be really big. Together, if investors believed in any of these points, they’d be afraid not to bet on you. As you do, keep in mind that there is an important distinction between what the business is and how you tell the story of what your business is. Your conversations with investors should influence the latter, not the former. No investor knows your business as well as you do.”

The announcements of the shortlisted startups for the semi-finals will be done by 1st September, 2025 by Bangkok 23:59 time. Any date changes will be announced.

The general judging criteria is broken down to main areas. Please keep these in mind as you design your pitch deck, pitch video, and semi-finals, finals pitches!

Idea: How innovative is this idea?

Market Opportunity: Market Size, Competition, Scalability
Business Model: Revenue Model, Pricing, Target Customers
Traction: Any revenue, customers, investors?
Team: Is a skilled team in place for the startup’s success?

Judges will also be considering your years of operation and funding stage when evaluating.

The judging panels will be experts in the respective sectors and will be a diverse panel with investment, commercial, and entrepreneurial background in the sector.

20 startups will be selected to pitch in-person as part of the Supernova Semi-Finals on Day 2.

Highest ranked 10 startups will move on to pitch in-person as part of the Supernova Finals which will take place on Day 3 to determine the winners.

There will be no pitching for the Special Awards. The winners will be awarded based on product-market fit and expansion plans.

2 Minute Pitch + 3 Min Q&A

There will be no sector categories in the upcoming edition as part of Supernova. The selection committee will score, and shortlist startups based on a variety of metrics including sector representation There are however Special Mention & Sponsored awards which will have application criteria mentioned in the Exhibitor Portal (Ezone).

At the Main Stage at GITEX Digi Health. Find it on the venue map.

Only 1 person can deliver the pitch on stage.

You will be notified by email that you have been shortlisted including the details with location and timing, and presentation requirements.

You will need to have your pitch presentation in 16:9 ratio as a Powerpoint file and a PDF file version. Please share PDFs to make sure your presentation has your correct fonts and formats. If you have any videos as part of your pitch, please send the video file in .mp4 as a separate file. You will be submitting these files by email ONLY if you are shortlisted for the semi-finals and finals which you will be notified about before. Please do not send any files to team members prior to this besides what is required on the Exhibitor portal for the GITEX Digi Health Supernova application.

The team will be in touch if you are shortlisted to move on to the finals. All selection will be made by Day 2 in order to be ready for the Finals on Day 3. Your selection email will include the presentation requirements, location, and timing.

10 Startups are selected to pitch in the finals on Day 3.

2 Minute Pitch + 3 Min Q&A per startup

At the Main stage at GITEX Digi Health. Finalists will receive all the logistics details by Day 2 to know where to go and when.