🏆 Introducing your 2026 #ImagineCup World Champion: CopyFlag! Built by Patrick Brown from the University of Oxford, CopyFlag is helping creators protect their original work in the age of generative AI. Using Azure-powered AI models, the platform detects copied and AI-modified content across the internet, helping creators identify infringement faster and automate takedowns at scale. Inspired by his own experience of having work copied online, Patrick set out to make advanced content protection tools accessible beyond the world's largest brands and enterprises. Today, CopyFlag is building a future where creators can spend less time defending their work and more time creating. 🌍 👏 Congratulations to CopyFlag, recipient of $150,000 USD, a mentorship session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, continued support through @msft4startups, plus an additional 6 months and $5,000 USD in credits from Replit to continue building what's next. And a BIG SHOUTOUT finalists: ✨ Revora Health ✨ SpoilSafe Together, these student-founded startups demonstrated how the next generation of founders is applying AI to tackle meaningful challenges across creator protection, healthcare, and supply chain intelligence. The future is being built right now, and student founders are leading the way. 🙌 🔗 Learn more: msft.it/6010vbNqC #MicrosoftBuild #AI #Startup

👏 A special moment for our student founders at #MicrosoftBuild. This week, the founders behind CopyFlag, @RevoraHealth, and SpoilSafe, along with 2025 Imagine Cup World Finalist @alycearae of HairMatch and James Hurtado, a Gold #MicrosoftStudentAmbassador and winner of the Microsoft Global AI Hackathon, had the opportunity to connect with @Winterrose and share more about the startups they’ve spent months building and refining. As a former founder, startup advisor, and investor, Britton offered thoughtful insights and encouragement, while these founders demonstrated the vision, determination, and resilience that have shaped their entrepreneurial journeys. Moments like these are a reminder that #ImagineCup is more than a competition. It’s a community of founders building startups that are good for business and good for the world. 🌍

🏆 Congratulations to Terry and the L-Guard Ltd team on officially receiving their 2026 #ImagineCup Top Launch Startup award! What began in Rwanda as a mission to make roads safer and emergency response faster across Africa has grown into a startup focused on addressing a critical real-world challenge through technology. This recognition reflects the hard work, resilience, and determination it takes to turn a vision into a startup with the potential to create meaningful impact. Terry and his fellow founders are part of a growing community of student entrepreneurs building startups that are good for business and good for the world. We’re proud to celebrate this milestone and the journey that brought L-Guard here. 🌍🚀

One of those full-circle moments. Back in September 2025, @mustafasuleyman announced that registrations were open for the 2026 #ImagineCup season, inviting student founders around the world to take the leap and start building. Fast forward to #MicrosoftBuild, and just moments before the 2026 Imagine Cup World Champion was announced, our finalists gathered backstage with Mustafa for a quick photo. For the founders of CopyFlag, Revora Health, and SpoilSafe, it was a reminder of how far they had come—from registering for the competition, to building and refining their startups, to pitching on the World Championship stage in front of a global audience. Because Imagine Cup is more than a competition. It’s a community of student founders using technology to tackle meaningful challenges, build commercially viable startups, and create solutions that are good for business and good for the world.

🎬 One year ago, the 2025 #ImagineCup World Championship took center stage at #MSBuild. Three student-founded startups stepped onto the global stage to share their vision, showcase their startups, and demonstrate how they were using AI to tackle meaningful challenges. ✨ Argus (United States) brought AI-powered technology to help people with visual impairments navigate the world more independently. ✨ HairMatch (United States) created an AI-powered platform helping people discover hair products and routines tailored to their unique hair needs. ✨ Signvrse (Kenya) built AI-powered sign language translation technology designed to make communication more accessible for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community. In the end, Argus was named the 2025 Imagine Cup World Champion, earning $100,000 USD and a mentorship session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella. 🏆 Now, a new group of founders is preparing for their moment. In just 5 days, the 2026 Imagine Cup World Championship will take place live at Microsoft Build, where CopyFlag, Revora Health, and SpoilSafe will compete for the title of World Champion. ⏰ June 2 | 9:15 AM PDT 📺 Join us live on Instagram as we stream the World Championship and winner announcement. Click the #linkinbio to attend. Who will be next to join the growing community of student founders building businesses that are good for business and good for the world?

Who’s tuning into #MSBuild this year? 👀 Whether you’re joining in person or virtually from anywhere in the world, this is the week builders, founders, developers, and innovators come together to see what’s next. And yes — virtual attendance is FREE. 🙌 From major AI announcements and live sessions to the 2026 #ImagineCup World Championship winner reveal, there’s a lot you won’t want to miss. If you haven’t registered yet, this is your sign.🪧 Drop a comment and tell us where you’ll be joining from! 🌍⬇️ build.microsoft.com/

🚨 Save the Date On June 2 at 9:15 AM PDT, the winner of the Imagine Cup World Championship will be revealed LIVE at #MicrosoftBuild. Student startups CopyFlag, Revora Health, and SpoilSafe are taking the stage with AI-powered solutions for global impact. x.com/i/broadcasts/1RJjpzggY…

Judge Highlight: Thea Myhrvold Great ideas only matter if people can use them. ✨ We’re excited to welcome @TheaMyhrvold as a judge for the #ImagineCup World Championship. Thea builds at the intersection of technology and human experience, with work spanning AI, product development, and venture creation. Her focus is simple. Turning ideas into products that people actually adopt and use. She brings a product-first perspective to innovation, one that looks beyond what is possible and focuses on what is usable, relevant, and built to last. Read the blog to learn more. aka.ms/2026ImagineCupWorldCh… Watch the livestream on June 2 at Microsoft Build (9:45 PDT AM) to see how this year’s World Champion is decided. More details to come.

#ImagineCup is #Microsoft’s global student startup competition, bringing together students building commercially viable startups on its cloud and AI platforms. 🌍 #RedBull Basement focuses on earlier-stage student innovators as they explore ideas, test concepts, and begin shaping what’s next. 💡 Finalists from both programs are now gearing up for their championship moments this June. 🏆 Take a moment to read the Microsoft Signal Story: news.microsoft.com/signal/?p… 👀

Judge Highlight: Dr. Irina Raicu AI doesn’t move forward without people who know how to apply it. 💡 We’re excited to welcome Irina Raicu as a judge for the #ImagineCup World Championship. Dr. Raicu has spent more than 15 years turning emerging technology into real-world impact across IBM, Accenture, and Microsoft, helping teams bring AI into practice at scale. Today, she is building at the intersection of enterprise AI and startup innovation, with a clear lens on what it takes to move from concept to something that actually works. She brings a perspective grounded in execution. What holds up beyond the pitch. What delivers in the real world. Read the blog to learn more. aka.ms/2026ImagineCupWorldCh… Watch the livestream on June 2 at Microsoft Build (9:45 PDT AM) to see how this year’s World Champion is decided. More details to come.

These are the leaders helping decide which startup takes the stage at Microsoft Build on June 2. 🏆 They bring experience across AI, startups, and global platforms, and a clear understanding of what it takes to move from early traction to something that lasts. Meet the judges 👇 👩‍💻 Dr. Irina Raicu:�AI leader, founder, and former Microsoft product manager. Irina has spent more than 15 years translating emerging technology into real-world impact across IBM, Accenture, and Microsoft, including driving large-scale AI adoption across engineering teams. Today, she is building at the intersection of enterprise AI and startup innovation. 🚀 Bakari Brock: GM Director of Global Partnerships at Microsoft for Startups. Bakari connects founders with the networks and infrastructure needed to grow on Azure, with experience spanning Guideline, Lyft, Twitter, YouTube, and Google across partnerships and go-to-market strategy. 💡 Thea Myhrvold: �Technologist and entrepreneur focused on building at the intersection of technology and human experience. Thea brings deep experience across AI, product development, and venture building, with a focus on turning ideas into products people can actually use. Watch the livestream on June 2 at Microsoft Build @ 9:45 AM PTD to see which startup is named the 2026 Imagine Cup World Champion. Stay connected and follow the journey! aka.ms/2026ImagineCupWorldCh… #TechLearningWeek #startups #LegacyEra

🗨️ “The creator economy is built on original ideas, yet most creators have no way to defend their work online.” For Patrick Brown, a student at the @unioxford1 🇬🇧, that gap became the starting point. CopyFlag is built on a different belief. That protection should be built into the system, not added after something goes wrong. “Generative AI has dramatically lowered the cost of copying and modifying creative work. We’re using AI to reverse that imbalance.” Instead of focusing on content generation, Patrick is applying AI to recognize patterns, trace variations, and surface where original work is being reused across the internet. “For decades, sophisticated brand protection technology has only been available to the world’s largest companies. We’re using AI to democratise that capability.” This is about shifting who has access. Giving creators the ability to participate, create, and grow without constantly looking over their shoulder. 🌍 Learn more about this year’s finalists and follow along as we head toward the World Championship: aka.ms/2026ImagineCupWorldFi… #ImagineCup #studentlife #hackathon

🗨️ Better decisions start with better signals. Meet SpoilSafe, built by Vivaan Sawant, Advika Vuppala, Rohan Ganesh, and Troy McBride from the United States 🇺🇸, students at @CarnegieMellon. Vivaan brings a mindset rooted in systems, optimization, and long-term thinking. Advika leads with a hands-on approach to building and a commitment to expanding access for others. Rohan approaches problems with adaptability, constantly experimenting and iterating. Troy brings precision and structured thinking, grounding ideas in technical rigor. Together, that foundation shapes how SpoilSafe is built. Across supply chains, decisions about food are often based on static timelines instead of real conditions. SpoilSafe introduces a more precise approach, using sensor data and predictive modeling to estimate freshness in real time. Sensor data streams through Azure IoT Hub and is processed using Azure Data Explorer and Azure Synapse Analytics, while spoilage prediction models run on Azure AI Foundry. The result is a clearer, data-driven view of food freshness, helping teams make more informed decisions and reduce waste across the supply chain. 🌍 Learn more about this year’s finalists and follow along as we head toward the World Championship: aka.ms/2026ImagineCupWorldFi… #imaginecup #TechStyle #TechInWellness

Revora Health and an MBA student at Carnegie Mellon University. Surya’s path into building Revora Health started with people, not just technology. He stepped away from software engineering to become a personal trainer, working closely with clients navigating injury and recovery. That is where he saw the gap. Recovery often felt isolating, inconsistent, and slow to begin. Revora Health is where those experiences come together. The platform connects patients to licensed providers in minutes and delivers real-time, AI-guided support, helping people stay engaged in their recovery while keeping clinicians involved every step of the way. Surya is building the solution he wished his clients had, combining his background in technology with a deep commitment to making care more accessible. Whether he is pushing his limits in endurance races or leading fitness fundraisers in support of Save the Children, that same discipline shows up in how he is building Revora Health. His focus is clear. Expanding access to specialized care and making sure no one has to navigate the path to healing alone. 🌍 Learn more about this year’s finalists and follow along as we head toward the World Championship: aka.ms/2026ImagineCupWorldFi…

🗨️ Protecting creative work starts with understanding it. Meet Patrick Brown from the United Kingdom 🇬🇧, a final-year Biochemistry student at the @UniofOxford and the founder behind CopyFlag. Patrick’s path into AI started in the lab, where he built computer vision models to analyze biological images and recognize complex patterns at scale. At the same time, he was building online businesses alongside designers and creators. That is where he saw the gap. Original work being copied, altered, and resold, with little ability for independent creators to track or stop it. CopyFlag brings those worlds together. Using Azure-based AI models, it detects both direct copies and AI-modified derivatives, matches them across platforms, and automates takedowns in minutes. What was once manual and out of reach is now something creators can actually use. Patrick set out to apply what he learned in research to protect real people building real businesses, helping ensure the creator economy remains fair and built to last. 🌍 Learn more about this year’s finalists and follow along as we head toward the World Championship: aka.ms/2026ImagineCupWorldFi… #TechGiants #studentlife #techforgood

What happens after Imagine Cup? This. 👇 Astra Wellbeing kept building. After advancing as a 2024 Microsoft #ImagineCup Semifinalist, the startup continued to gain traction across the global ecosystem—earning recognition as a Top 20 team worldwide and going on to win more than five national startup competitions. That momentum translated into over six figures in non-dilutive funding, along with acceptance into leading programs including @msft4startups and MassChallenge. They were also named among Poets & Quants’ Most Disruptive Business School Startups, further proof of the impact they are building toward. Now, Astra Wellbeing is stepping into its next chapter through a 7-figure acquisition by HomeTeams, with founder Johar Singh taking on the role of President. From semifinalist to scale. This is what it looks like when student founders keep going. 🚀✨ Learn more about their journey: healthcarebusinesstoday.com/… #TechForGood #TechLeadership

🗨️ Food freshness shouldn’t rely on estimates. Meet SpoilSafe, one of the 2026 #ImagineCup World Finalists, founded by Advika Vuppala, Rohan Ganesh, Troy McBride and Vivaan Sawant from the United States 🇺🇸 SpoilSafe brings real-time intelligence into the cold chain, where decisions have long been based on static timelines instead of live conditions. Sensor data streams through Azure IoT Hub and is processed using Azure Data Explorer and Azure Synapse Analytics, while spoilage prediction models run on Azure AI Foundry. This approach gives teams a clearer, data-driven view of food freshness, helping them act earlier and reduce waste across storage and distribution. SpoilSafe is redefining how freshness is measured, turning data into more precise decision-making across the supply chain. 🌍 Learn more about this year’s finalists and follow along as we head toward the World Championship: aka.ms/2026ImagineCupWorldFi… @CarnegieMellon #TechForGood #StudentLife

🗨️ Recovery shouldn’t take months to begin. Meet Revora Health, one of the 2026 #ImagineCup World Finalists, founded by Surya Kukkapalli from the United States 🇺🇸 Revora Health is reimagining physical therapy by removing the delay between injury and care. The platform connects patients to licensed providers in minutes and delivers real-time, multimodal guidance through AI-driven computer vision, powered by Azure Health Data Services. With HIPAA-compliant Azure AI supporting continuous care, patients stay engaged in their recovery while providers can extend their reach without increasing burnout. Revora Health is creating a more immediate, connected path to recovery, keeping clinicians in the loop while making care more accessible from the start. 🌍 Learn more about this year’s finalists and follow along as we head toward the World Championship: aka.ms/2026ImagineCupWorldFi… @CarnegieMellon #TechLife #TechLeadership

🗨️ What creators build deserves to be protected. Meet CopyFlag, one of the 2026 #ImagineCup World Finalists—founded by Patrick Brown from the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 CopyFlag is tackling a growing reality in the generative AI era, where original work can be copied, altered, and redistributed at scale, often without creators even knowing. Built on Microsoft Azure ☁️, the platform detects both direct copies and AI-modified versions of designs across the internet and initiates takedowns automatically. What has traditionally been manual, expensive, and out of reach is now accessible. Creators can protect what they’ve built without needing deep legal or technical resources. Early traction shows the need is real. Thousands of creators are already testing the platform, with tens of thousands of infringements identified across online marketplaces. 📈 After experiencing copyright infringement firsthand, Patrick set out to build CopyFlag—focused on giving creators and small businesses the tools to detect and protect their work at scale. 🌍 Learn more about this year’s finalists and follow along as we head toward the World Championship: aka.ms/2026ImagineCupWorldFi… #TechStyle #TechClub

Introducing the 2026 #ImagineCup Top Launch Startup: L-Guard Ltd 🎉 In many regions, road accidents are not always the most dangerous moment. The delay in response is. L-Guard is changing that. By combining Azure AI and IoT, this student-built system detects crashes in real time and alerts nearby hospitals and emergency responders immediately, helping shift outcomes when every second counts. This is a startup grounded in lived experience, shaped by real-world conditions, and built with a clear sense of responsibility for what comes next. As the Top Launch Startup, L-Guard receives $50,000 USD along with continued visibility and support from Microsoft as they scale what comes next. Congratulations to the founders behind L-Guard 👇 Helen Ugoeze Okereke Ramadhani Wanjenja Terry Manzi Erioluwa Olowoyo Read the full blog to learn more about their journey and what they are building: aka.ms/2026ImagineCupTopLaun… Follow along as we continue toward the World Championship 🌍