Ohio VC Fest doubles down with regional round for $1m prize

Ohio VC Fest is coming back to downtown Cleveland on September 16–17, 2025, with organizers saying the two-day conference offers a concentrated marketplace for Midwest deal-making and founder-investor matchmaking. The third annual gathering will be staged at the Huntington Convention Center, with AI and other emerging trends top of the agenda through founder showcases, investor panels, demo zones, and curated 1:1 meetings.

The event is hosted by entrepreneur support organization JumpStart, who say the program has been intentionally curated to accelerate local deal flow and surface startups ready for institutional investment. “We’re creating a platform that brings capital and innovation together in a way that reflects Ohio’s growing role in the national tech economy,” said JumpStart’s interim CEO, Lorne Novick, adding that this year’s lineup is the organization’s “most ambitious yet.”

The program blends staged content with structured matchmaking: panels and keynotes will be paired with Demo Zone showcases and two pitch competitions, while founder-investor interactions are supported by what the organizers describe as proprietary software to curate one-on-one meetings by stage, sector and capital needs. 

The agenda highlights AI-focused panels, healthtech breakouts, founder roundtables, and scheduled venture-connection slots designed to compress discovery cycles and encourage follow-on diligence. 

A high-profile addition this year is Ohio VC Fest’s role as the Cleveland regional for the Startup World Cup. 

The Startup World Cup launched almost ten years ago according to TechCrunch, and this regional round pits the ten local finalists against each other live in the middle of the second and final event day on September 17. The winner has the opportunity to advance to the global Grand Finale in San Francisco between October 15 and 17, to pursue the event’s headline $1 million investment prize. 

Headline speakers for the event include New York Times bestselling author and founder Amy Jo Martin and entrepreneur-investor and Ohian, Vivek Ramaswamy. According to the agenda, Amy Jo Martin will deliver the Day 1 keynote and record a live episode of her podcast, in a fireside chat with serial entrepreneur and investor Michael Loeb. Organizers say Ramaswamy will close the festival with a Day 2 keynote framed around the claim that Ohio’s industrial legacy, research institutions and workforce create unique conditions to scale technologies that address real-world problems. 

Registration for Ohio VC Fest is open now through the festival website.