CoCreate 2026 Invites Founders, SMEs and Students to Build the Future with AI-Integrated Products
NEW YORK, May 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Alibaba.com, the world's leading B2B e-commerce platform, today announced the return of CoCreate Pitch, now reimagined as an AI-powered product innovation competition with a total prize pool of over $1 million. The U.S. and Europe finals will take place during CoCreate 2026 in Los Angeles (September 9-10) and London (November 19-20), respectively, with a new Asia-Pacific regional round launching this year.
The Agentic Business: Turning Human Vision into Global Scale
This year marks a pivotal shift from past editions of the competition: for the first time, launching a business from scratch is no longer a dream but an accessible reality, with the help of Accio Work, Alibaba's plug-and-play enterprise AI agent.
Global trade is now shifting from traditional business-to-business (B2B) to agent-to-agent (A2A) commerce. In this new "Agentic Business" model, autonomous AI agents handle the heavy lifting-sourcing, logistics, and coordination-allowing the technical barriers of business to fall away. Accio Work functions as a no-code, autonomous task force, enabling entrepreneurs to build products, launch businesses, and scale faster than ever before.
This transition enables a single visionary to run an eight-figure global brand from a laptop with the efficiency of a multinational corporation. By lowering the floor for execution, tools like Accio Work empower everyone from young digital natives to industry veterans, to turn a strong idea into a global presence.
"In a world where execution is automated, your perspective is your greatest asset," said Kuo Zhang, President of Alibaba.com. "Accio Work is the essential toolkit for every entrepreneur in this AI era, allowing anyone with a strong idea to reach the world. Now is the best time to start-and we're excited to see what founders will build."
From Idea to Prize: How the Competition Supports AI-Driven Innovation
This year's competition includes three distinct tracks:
- General SMEs Track, for established small and medium businesses ready to scale;
- 0-to-1 Startup Track, for founders using Accio Work to bring raw ideas to life; and
- Student Track, for current students building next-generation products.
All applicants will register through Accio Work, which now includes a dedicated "CoCreate Pitch Agent" to help transform early-stage concepts into structured pitch proposals and actionable plans.
Submissions will be evaluated based on innovation, feasibility and market potential, as well as how effectively participants use Accio Work to sharpen their ideas and improve execution.
The Los Angeles and London finals will each feature 20 finalists competing live at CoCreate. Winners will be selected by a panel of industry leaders and investors. In each final, the first-, second-, and third-place winners will receive $200,000, $100,000, and $50,000, respectively, while the other 17 finalists will each receive $10,000. The total prize pool for the newly introduced Asia-Pacific regional competition will be announced later.
Accio Work can be downloaded from https://www.accio.com/work/, or via the CoCreate Pitch event page: https://www.alibabacocreate.com/pitch.
For full competition rules, terms, and prize details, please refer to the official CoCreate Pitch website referenced above. The organizer reserves the right of final interpretation.
About CoCreate
CoCreate is the world's leading sourcing event, connecting global e-commerce sellers, retailers, and wholesalers with top manufacturers and industry experts. By fostering face-to-face collaboration, the summit empowers businesses to discover innovative products, optimize supply chains, and build partnerships that drive long-term growth.
About Alibaba.com
Launched in 1999, Alibaba.com is a leading platform for global business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce that serves buyers and suppliers from over 200 countries and regions around the world. It is engaged in services covering various aspects of commerce, including providing businesses with tools that help them reach a global audience for their products and helping buyers discover products, find suppliers and place orders online fast and efficiently. Alibaba.com is part of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Mike Hong
mike.hong@alibaba-inc.com
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