PARIS, June 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Proof of Pitch returned to the Louvre Palace on June 2 and 3 for its fourth edition, and two startups left Paris as winners. ReplyCorp took the General Track, and Parthenon won the Canton Track after live pitches in front of one of the strongest investor juries in Web3.
Organized by X Ventures, Proof of Pitch is the official startup competition of Proof of Talk. Spectrum Nodes hosted this year’s edition with BPI France as co-host, and Hecto came on as title partner. Security and audit came from Softstack, cloud from OVHcloud, media from Cointelegraph, market making from Digital Liquidity Partners, ecosystem support from Octant, and communications from INPUT Global.
Proof of Talk is known as the Davos of Web3 and brings roughly 2,500 senior leaders in digital assets, finance, and policy to the Louvre each year. Inside that room, Proof of Pitch gives early-stage founders a direct line to investors.
This year, fifteen finalists reached the stage after a global selection process and competed on the General, Canton, and Bittensor tracks. The General Track jury included Rob Hadick of Dragonfly, Diogo Monica of Haun Ventures, Evan Feng of Coinfund, Matthew Felice Pace of Simply Staking & Spectrum Nodes, Joe Bruzzesi of Raptor Digital, Simon Dedic of Moonrock Capital Alice Li of Foresight Ventures, and Andy Tang of Draper Associates.
The Canton Track was judged by Leeor Groen of Spartan, Keli Callaghan of Arrington Capital, Danish Chaudhry of Paper VC and Yannis Varelas of 5North.
The Bittensor Track jury featured Jacob Steeves of Bittensor, Marcus Graichen of taostats, Mike Grantis of General Tensor and Chris Zacharia of Bitstarter.
“My four Ps for founders are patience, persistence, positivity, and Proof of Talk,” said Andy Tang, Partner at Draper Associates. “The first three get you ready. The last one gets you in the room with the people who can write the check.”
ReplyCorp won the General Track with a product that turns social replies into storefronts. Every comment, reply, or post becomes a sale that the company can track, with no link or discount code required.
The team built native AI workflows that route engagement straight into commerce. ReplyCorp is live on Base with its REPLY token in market through Virtuals Protocol, and it closed $200,000 from three strategic angel investors during the event.
Parthenon won the Canton Track with a credit product built for institutions. It offers undercollateralized, fixed-rate lending for digital assets, with custody-native collateral, full legal recourse under a GMSLA framework, and privacy-preserving execution.
The founding team comes from private credit, Big Law, commodities, and DeFi. Parthenon completed a Quantstamp audit and is onboarding more than $230 million in institutional commitments and 9,000 BTC on its private mainnet, with a seed round next.
“The hardest part for an early team is getting in front of the right investors,” said Matthew Felice Pace, CEO of Spectrum Nodes. “That is what this stage does. ReplyCorp and Parthenon both walked in with real products and walked out with the kind of attention that changes a company’s trajectory.”
The 2026 prize package totaled $1 million and combined Spectrum Nodes infrastructure support, AWS cloud credits, OVHcloud credits, a Softstack audit, go-to-market mentorship from Simplicity Group, and media support from Cointelegraph.
Past winners have gone on to raise serious rounds. Redstone took a $15 million Series A in 2023, Usual followed in 2024 with $10 million, and Accountable raised $7.5 million from Pantera and OKX last year.
Proof of Pitch keeps doing what the format was built for. It takes a founder with early conviction and puts that work in front of the people who can fund it. The 2026 edition did exactly that, and two more companies left with a real head start.
About Proof of Talk
Proof of Talk is known as the Davos of Web3, held annually at the Louvre Palace in Paris. It convenes the most senior decision-makers in digital assets, finance, policy, and media under one roof, with no pay-to-speak, a journalist-led agenda, and back-to-back sold-out editions.
Alongside the public agenda, the event has become a place where partnerships form, ideas get tested, and some of the industry’s more serious discussions happen face to face.
About Proof of Pitch
Proof of Pitch is the official startup competition of Proof of Talk, held at the Louvre Palace in Paris. With more than 600 vetted startups and 150 global investors over its editions, and winners who have gone on to raise serious follow-on rounds, Proof of Pitch has become a launchpad for early-stage Web3 founders.
About X Ventures
X Ventures is a Germany-based digital assets investment fund dedicated to supporting and empowering entrepreneurs in the Web3 industry. Alongside its investment activities, X Ventures founded X-School, aiming to provide accessible education to future leaders worldwide.
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