Fayetteville-based startup wins chance to compete in global pitch competition | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

FAYETTEVILLE — A northwest Arkansas-based startup that aims to combat homelessness will have a chance to win $1 million later this year.

Daizhan Ennals of Fayetteville won the Arkansas Regional Qualifier for the Startup World Cup and is now eligible to compete in the global startup competition in San Francisco later this year.

The winner of the global competition will receive $1 million to develop their startup.

Startup Junkies, an entrepreneurship consulting firm and nonprofit organization, organized the regional competition in partnership with Pegasus Tech Ventures, a global venture capital firm based in San Jose, California, which hosts the global competition.

Christian Moran, an investment advisor at Pegasus Ventures, said there will be about 100 regional competitions on six continents before the final. The World Cup began in 2017, Moran said, and the number of regional competitions has doubled this year.

Moran said the company is focused on recruiting U.S.-based startups and sees Arkansas as a potential market. He said Walmart’s home office expansion intrigued him, and after doing some market research, Northwest Arkansas seemed like a good fit.

Moran said he reached out to Startup Junkies, who helped set up the regional qualifiers.

Caleb Talley, executive director of the Startup Junkie Foundation, said Arkansas is having its first regional qualifier. More than 50 startups entered the competition, Talley said, including nine on Friday night.

Many startups have introduced AI-powered technologies, such as Ask Steve, a generative AI browser; Moonbase, an AI human resources assistant; and Gumption, a job board that uses AI to match candidates with companies.

“I think you’re seeing advances in AI creating opportunities for entrepreneurs to build solutions using AI as a tool,” Talley said. “Maybe it’s a problem that’s been there, and AI is providing an opportunity to solve it in a new, advanced way.”

But the winning startup isn’t using AI. It’s using mechanical technology to address disaster relief and the housing crisis.

Ennals founded Renewed Robotics in 2023 to use robotic technology to solve the world’s problems, he said. Ennals used his experience as a helicopter mechanic in the U.S. Marine Corps to create a self-assembling commune, or a self-assembling, self-sufficient tiny home.

“It’s almost like an origami house,” Ennals said. “If you could take a small house, fold the roof, put the walls together, and then just attach the motors to the bases — the motors now just put the house together.”

Ennals said the homes are self-sufficient as they use solar power, take water into a filtration system to purify it, have an HVAC unit and even drill into the ground to provide a stable foundation.

Moran said he was interested in the Ennalsa startup because of its potential to scale internationally and be used for both humanitarian aid and building secondary housing units or tiny homes.

The 200-square-foot homes were built primarily for disaster relief, Ennals said, but they could also prove helpful in addressing housing crises.

He added that he is currently working with the state government in Oregon to deploy 30,000 devices by the end of 2026, and is looking to partner with other states such as New York, California, Texas, as well as regionally in northwest Arkansas.

Ennals said the idea came about after spending time in Oregon during his military service and wanting to help the growing homeless community there.

“It’s less about what I do and more about what humanity expects from companies now,” Ennals said after winning Friday’s competition. “It’s very rewarding to see that investors want solutions for the people who need them, not just for companies to get rich.”