HR and payroll management platform Deel will hold a global startup tournament, 'The Pitch', to discover and support promising startups worldwide.

The Pitch is a global competition program targeting more than 20,000 seed-stage startups across 7 regions worldwide, including Singapore, New York, Dubai and Paris. The total investment is $15 million. Up to 100 regional winners will be selected, and each will receive a $50,000 investment.

Up to 10 teams selected as global champions will receive an additional $1 million. After an online selection process, regional offline finals will be held at major global tech hubs including Tel Aviv, Dubai, Singapore, New York, Paris, London and Berlin. The final winning team will be decided at the global final stage in May 2026.

Applications for the Asia-Pacific region, which includes South Korea, will be accepted until April 22. Applicants need to fill in simple items related to the region and the startup and attach introductory materials. Any seed-stage company with a minimum viable product can participate, and there is no separate entry fee.

Jun-hyung Park (박준형), head of sales at Deel Korea, said, "'The Pitch' was designed to move beyond the geographic limits of traditional venture investment and to discover global startups with high growth potential through an intense tournament process." He added, "In an environment where talent is everywhere but access to capital is not, we expect to discover many founding teams with good ideas and capabilities regardless of region or personal connections."