Atlanta Innovation Cup Spurs Student Startups Ahead of 2026 World Cup

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Most college students were cramming for midterms earlier this October. But a few from across Georgia were quickly building new companies through the Atlanta Innovation Cup.

The Cup, which took place during the Avant South conference, tasked students with developing technology solutions that could be directly applied to the 2026 World Cup, which will be played partially in Atlanta. More than 300 Georgia-based college students throughout applied. That field was ultimately narrowed down to four top teams.

Participating teams had just over a week to design their business and prepare for the pitch.

The competition was sponsored by Cisco, Deloitte, Showcase Atlanta, and US Soccer.

The team behind the winning concept wants to make it easier to connect locals with tourists during large events like the World Cup.

Following the pitch competition win, we caught up with the winning team, Impact Collective, to learn more about their app idea, TERA.

Why Students Joined

The TERA team is made up of UGA and Georgia Tech students. All the students on the TERA team entered the ATL Innovation Cup challenge independently and were paired up based on their academic backgrounds. The team consisted of UGA computer science students Arjun Sakthi and Matt Mocklin, UGA mathematics student Hadiza Sarr, and Georgia Tech electrical engineering student Aimee Zheng.Sarr, a senior at UGA, said the program gave her a chance to apply the skills she learned in the classroom.

Mocklin told Hypepotamus that it was a chance to learn about the product side of the tech world.

“With a computer science degree, there isn't a ton of focus on the product side and business strategy side of things," he added. "I thought it would be a really good experience to approach [a problem] product-side first,” he added.

Student Innovations For The Entire City

Sarr said that the team wanted to build something that “put locals first” and allowed locals to capitalize on the World Cup tourism boom. TERA is a human-led, AI-assisted travel platform that connects tourists and residents with verified local hosts for authentic travel experiences.

Mocklin said the team realized their best individual travel experiences did not come from Google Reviews or advertisements. Instead, they came from visiting a place where they knew someone locally who could show them around.  That informed the project they ultimately pitched during the Innovation Cup.

“We’re creating a platform that brings people together through travel to show them around…rather than having an algorithm drive people to certain places,” he added.

The TERA team walked away with $7,500 as well as three to six months of mentorship with industry professionals.

Sakthi said that the Cup helped him look at events, like the World Cup, from a business and analytical lens.

“Everything is an opportunity for a new product or a new idea or something to make the world better,” he added.

Zheng, a first-year Georgia Tech student, said the team is now “absorbing all the feedback” from the competition.

Student Entrepreneurship In Georgia

The State of Georgia is pushing entrepreneurship hard across college campuses. Georgia Tech itself has set an ambitious goal propping up 1,000 new startups a year.

In 2024 the City of Atlanta launched ACES, the Atlanta Collegiate Entrepreneurship Syndicate. Individual universities have also opened up their own startup incubators or entrepreneurship hubs over the years. Some to note include:

Georgia Tech’s Startup Launch

The Hatchery at Emory University

The Center For Black Entrepreneurship at Spelman College and Morehouse College

HatchBridge Incubator at Kennesaw State University

Entrepreneurship & Innovation Institute (ENI) at Georgia State University

The University of Georgia Idea Accelerator Program

Agnes Scott College’s Bridge To Business Program --

Photo of TERA team From LinkedIn