Global Wellness Summit announces innovation competition for wellness in the metaverse and Web3

August 12, 2022

Global Wellness Summit has announced the first-ever global competition for startups and established companies pioneering a new era for health and wellness in the metaverse and Web3 with the entrants to be judged by a high-profile panel of experts. The competition is co-sponsored by WellTech Ventures and Meta (formerly Facebook).

Submissions will be judged by a group of ten international Chief Executives, business leaders and venture capitalists in the wellness and tech spaces. These include two top executives in charge of tech startups and wellbeing at Meta, the head of the Technological Infrastructure Division at the Israeli Innovation Institute, and the Head of Strategy at Nike Data Science Innovation. The ‘Global Wellness Summit Prize’ will be awarded at the conference being held at the Hilton Tel Aviv from 31st October to 3rd November.

The Call for Innovation was founded in 2020 by the GWS and WellTech Ventures, Israel’s leading fund focused exclusively on investing in the wellness space. WellTech Ventures has sponsored the competition since 2020, and this year they’re spearheading the competition in addition to being host sponsor of the Tel Aviv Summit.

Amir Alroy, co-founder of WellTech Ventures notes “It’s our pleasure to lead another GWS Call for Innovation this year together with Meta. The focus on health and wellness in the metaverse is timely: It’s already a key aspect of the emerging metaverse and it’s going to make even more of an impact in the next few years because it enables a whole new patient experience and a much more immersive approach to health and wellness.”

Omer Rosenblum, Head of Wellbeing Vertical at Meta adds “we’re excited to partner with WellTech Ventures and the Global Wellness Summit for this Call for Innovation. The last few years have sharpened our focus on our health and our wellbeing. We are seeing digital health and wellness at the forefront of innovation and becoming one of the leading sectors of the metaverse–with fitness, mental health and mindfulness startups utilising XR capabilities to deliver impact to users. This is just the beginning and we’re excited to see what lies ahead for the wellness industry.”

Competition background

The metaverse, a profound digital platform shift, is becoming the multi-trillion-dollar frontier for a more engaged virtual world. A recent report from McKinsey & Co. forecast that annual consumer and business global spending within the metaverse could reach $5 trillion by 2030. Health and wellness will be one of the metaverse’s bright spots, with emerging technologies such as virtual, augmented and merged reality, haptics, blockchain, gamification, and crypto (together with many still unrealised technologies and behaviours) that will better engage more and more people in health and wellness experiences.

Every sector in the global wellness economy–whether it’s fitness, travel, beauty, mental wellness, medical-wellness, nutrition, or employee wellness–has a huge opportunity in the coming metaverse. The competition encourages companies that are innovating new metaverse and Web3 solutions in any wellness sector to apply–from early-stage startups to large, established companies. The winner will have the opportunity to present their concept to the hundreds of global industry leaders gathered at the Summit.

The contest is now open and closes Sept. 20, 2022. APPLY HERE.

Lineup of Judges:

Amir Alroy, co-founder of Welltech Ventures, the Israeli fund building impactful startups in the wellness space, and co-chair of this year’s Global Wellness Summit in Israel.
Galit Horovitz, co-founder of Welltech Ventures, who has extensive experience in business development and international M&A, working with technology, finance and consulting companies.
Nir Orren, Group Director of tech and startups at Meta in Israel, leading a team that supports startups at all stages, and helps them scale.
Omer Rosenblum, Client Partner and head of the Wellbeing Vertical at Meta in Israel, who leads business growth, marketing and strategy for a wide variety of companies in fitness and sports tech, nutrition, mental health, lifestyle, mindfulness, and more.
Aviv Zeevi, VP and head of the Technological Infrastructure Division at the Israel Innovation Institute, where he is responsible for generating collaborations between industry and academia to create advanced technologies and innovative products.
Anthony Diaz, founder and chief executive of Passion for Health, who has over a decade of leadership experience in healthcare, global product and platform development, and digital consumer engagement.
Judith Halioua, head of strategy at Nike Data Science Innovation and the liaison between the Israeli startup ecosystem and Nike in Israel.
Mia Kyricos, president and chief executive of Kyricos & Associates, LLC, with twenty years of experience advising wellness, travel/hospitality and healthy lifestyle brands across 100+ countries. She is also founding chair of the Global Wellness Institute’s new Web 3.0 Initiative.
Frank Pitsikalis, VP of strategy for Agilysys, a leading provider of enterprise software for the hospitality industry and founder and former chief executive of the recently-acquired ResortSuite, the world’s first software built specifically for wellness-driven hotel, resort, spa, golf and club operations.
Dean Rubin, CTO of the metaverse wellness center Yoga Bulldogz, a backend engineer who manages multiple development teams worldwide. He is a Web3 expert who has contributed to projects like HawsHouse, Okashi, Green Farm Factory and Toyota Dream Car.

Nancy Davis, GWS chief creative officer and executive director. adds “this competition has become a signature element of every Summit and I’m deeply grateful to Welltech Ventures for their continued support, and delighted to welcome Meta as a sponsor this year. The pandemic has spurred the wellness industry to be less tech-averse and our organization wants to drive early innovation in what promises to be a fascinating intersection between wellness and the metaverse.”

Registration for the 2022 Summit is open.

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