Wednesday, 03 June 2026 05:55 PM
Awards
NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / June 3, 2026 / Fundraising Bootcamp, a founder-first ecosystem connecting startups, investors, and opportunities, brought together some of the most promising AI startups, investors, and ecosystem leaders for its flagship Everything AI Startup Pitch Competition during New York Tech Week.
Founded by Dasha Kroshkina (Techstars & Berkeley SkyDeck alum, Forbes 30 Under 30, founder who raised $5M+ in venture funding) and Matviy Kruglov (former Berkeley SkyDeck ecosystem and investment team member, currently a scout), Fundraising Bootcamp has built a global ecosystem of 3,000+ founders and 250+ investors focused on helping exceptional founders access capital, visibility, and the right relationships earlier.
The competition featured a curated lineup of startups building across AI infrastructure, agentic systems, enterprise AI, robotics, healthcare AI, and frontier technologies. Founders pitched live to a panel of leading investors and operators from top technology companies and venture firms.
Judges included leaders from organizations such as AWS, OpenAI, and tier-1 venture capital funds like FirstMark Capital. The event continued the momentum of Fundraising Bootcamp's previous startup competitions, which have featured judges and participants from firms including a16z, Khosla Ventures, OpenAI, AWS, and others.
Fundraising Bootcamp's mission is to solve a growing challenge on both sides of the market: founders struggle to access the right investors, while investors struggle to discover exceptional startups before they become widely known. Through events, ecosystem partnerships, startup competitions, and its equity-free fundraising accelerator, the organization builds bridges between founders, investors, and opportunities.
The Judging Panel
The panel brought together leaders from across the AI, venture capital, and startup ecosystem:
Amrita Sarkar - North America Head of GenAI Startup GTM, AWS
Derek Canton - Startups Director, OpenAI
Ryan Sullivan - Investor, FirstMark Capital
Alexander Zemlyak - Partner, Geek Ventures
Monique Malcolm-Hay - Partner, Rethink Capital Partners
Neal Mintz - VP, Wischf Ventures
Malcolm-Wiley Floyd - Visiting Partner, Antler
Bradley Rothenberg - CEO, nTop
Katerina Andreeva - AI Strategy Advisor and former Data & AI Architect, IBM
Preston Bingley - Venture Capital, Amazon
Together, the panel evaluated startups building across AI infrastructure, enterprise AI, robotics, healthcare AI, and frontier technologies.
The Winners
First place - Neural Defend
Deepfake detection for AI authenticity and fraud prevention in BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance).
Founder: Piyush Verma
Second place - Tangering AI
Tangering automates last-mile delivery conversations and turns them into structured evidence, helping carriers recover the billions in chargebacks they currently write off as too expensive to dispute.
Founder: Andres Noero
Third place - Corseco
Corseco is building the verification layer for global trade - starting with scrap metal, because if you can prove what's in a shipping container, the rest of physical commerce gets easier.
Founder: Ralfs Saykiewicz
What People Said
Piyush Verma - Founder of Neural Defend, First-Place Winner:
"This was a very well-organized event. Some of the best investors in the city were here, and as a startup founder, it was a great opportunity for us to meet so many top-tier investors in one place. We're already talking to several of them about our fundraise. We want to thank the organizers for welcoming us and selecting us from hundreds of startups from across the country."
Dasha Kroshkina - Founder and Organizer, Fundraising Bootcamp:
"As a founder myself, it's a huge privilege to build this ecosystem and connect great founders and investors. I'm thrilled with how this event went - and even more excited to bring more impact at our SF Tech Week event and our LA Tech Week event in October this year."
Matviy Kruglov - Co-Founder, Fundraising Bootcamp (former Berkeley SkyDeck Fund ecosystem and investment team member):
"It was great to see that the venture volume of our ecosystem is exceeding billions in venture funding. The venture funds that participated as judges manage multi-billion-dollar funds, and we had founders in the room who have raised hundreds of millions. This isn't the first event we've hosted - founders from our previous events raised money right after, and some have even exited."
Alexander Zemlyak - Partner at Geek Ventures, Competition Judge:
"It was a great event and I really enjoyed it. The quality of the startups was amazing. I'm a fairly frequent judge at different competitions, and this was one of the first times I chose to follow up with most of the startups presenting. The quality of the judges was excellent as well - top-notch tier-1 and tier-2 investors who asked great questions. And an amazing venue, with a very nice view."
Katerina Andreeva - AI Strategy Advisor (Ex-IBM), Competition Judge:
"Every organization is about to face the same question: can we trust what we're seeing before we act on it? Neural Defend is one of the few teams treating that as the core problem rather than a feature. That's the kind of clarity I look for as a judge."
What's Next
Whether you're a founder, investor, operator, or AI enthusiast, Everything AI offers a unique opportunity to discover emerging companies and connect with the next generation of startup leaders. Fundraising Bootcamp's momentum continues at SF Tech Week, followed by LA Tech Week in October.
About Fundraising Bootcamp
Fundraising Bootcamp is a founder-first ecosystem connecting startups, investors, and opportunities. Through events, ecosystem partnerships, startup competitions, and an equity-free fundraising accelerator, it has built a global community of 3,000+ founders and 250+ investors, helping exceptional founders access capital, visibility, and the right relationships earlier.
Media Contact
Kseniia Petrina
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[email protected]
SOURCE: Fundraising Bootcamp