Venture Cup 2025
A month has passed since SagaLabs won the National Startup Competition (NSC) 2025. In this blogpost, I would like to take you on a journey back to the 27th of March 2025 and revisit this fantastic day of mine.
I arrived in Copenhagen in the morning, as the initial pitch was scheduled for 10:05. Kasper, Mogens and I met for a cup of coffee and then headed to the IDA headquarters, where the event was hosted. Along the way we chatted, wondering what the outcome of the day would be. I had not heard the pitch before, but Kasper reassured me that Mogens was _really_ good at it, and said that we might actually end up winning some money.
The pitch was done, 16 minutes in total; 4 minutes of pitching, followed by an 12 minute Q&A from the jury. I am not gonna lie; the semi-final pitch went great – Mogens hit the nail right on the head with that one! After pitching, we spoke with some of the other startups, eager to know what they were up to, and likewise telling them about our idea with SagaLabs. We were not allowed to stay on the site until the final in the afternoon though, so we parted ways with the other startups, and waited for time to pass, expectations high.
In order to kill some time, we headed to the AAU Incubator, where we chatted with some other students, and actually managed to work an hour or two on SagaLabs as well. Time passed, and soon we were on the way back to the IDA headquarters to attend the award show.
The Award Show
Having only seen a few other startups during the semi-final pitch, I did not grasp the sheer magnitude of this competition. But arriving at the finals, I came to realize that we were not the only ones with a plan to go home with a 120.000kr. Suddenly, there were startups everywhere, all waiting in suspense to know if they had qualified for the last ever final of the National Startup Competition.
It was also around this time I realized that my ticket back to Aalborg in a few hours would not suffice, if we were to win our category, and had to be on stage for the second pitch of the day. I talked with Kasper and Mogens, and we all agreed that I should reschedule my trip home to Friday morning instead – this was too big of an opportunity to miss. Had I not done that, I would have been greatly disappointed to miss out on standing on the stage for the second pitch, and joining Kasper and Mogens in this amazing evening to come.
But, back to the event. In total there were five categories: Green, Social, Digital, Product, and Health, SagaLabs being in the third. Slowly, but steadily we worked our way through the winners of each category. After being announcing the winner of a category, they had to join the stage, receive their award, and then pitch. Ready, set, go!
As the Digital category closed in, the tension started building up inside of me. ‘What if we actually won 20.000kr!?’ I felt as though we had a great chance, but at the same time, we had no idea how the other startups did in their initial pitch, hearing the pitches of the other category winners only made me more aware of this – they were really good as well!
When they announced that SagaLabs was the winner of the Digital category, we rushed onto the stage, full of joy and braced to pitch, one last time. I was glad it wasn't me, who had to perform the pitch in front of all those people, heart pounding in my chest.
Once again, Mogens nailed the pitch. Afterwards, The VIP Jury had 6 minutes to ask questions, for them to determine who would be worthy of the 100.000kr main prize. It all went great, and there were a break for everyone to get some dinner and network with one other, prior to announcing the overall winner.
When we finally sat back down for the final award ceremony, I once again became very aware that my heart was racing. Stephan from the VIP Jury entered the stage, ready to announce the winner.
“We have chosen a team, a product, and a company that serve an obvious need, that is apparent, and become more and more apparent. It is a team that comes from a practical background, relevant for the problem they are solving, and we find their product to have tremendous potential for global scaling.”
"And the winner is: SagaLabs!". We did it! We actually won the main prize, I could not belive it! Once again the three of us rushed onto the stage, where we were greeted with the check for 100.000kr, and some big smiles.
The Aftermath
As it turned out, not only did SagaLabs win, Aalborg University also received an award for being the university associated with the winner of the cup, our mentor Jacob told us. Furthermore, as this was the last Venture Cup NSC ever, (on the 25th anniversary) we also got to keep the trophy for good!
After the ceremony, there was a party in The Tower, at the IDA building. The party was an excellent opportunity for everyone to get to know one another, seek business opportunities and make new friendships. Personally, I enjoyed it a lot, and met a lot of new people.
If you wish to read more about all the startups attending NSC, the judging juries, and other relevant information, you can do so here.
As the competition does not continue, my recommendation for every startup to attend next year is somewhat moot. That being said, there are of course many other ways to to seek funding and meet venturers in the Danish startup community, so have a go at it!
