Rocket Fuel narrows 3,000 applicants to 100 finalists at LEAP 2026

One hundred startups selected from more than 3,000 applicants are competing for $1 million in equity-free prize money on the Rocket Fuel stage at LEAP 2026, with the grand finale scheduled for 3 September, the closing day of the show in Riyadh. Rocket Fuel is LEAP's flagship pitch competition, and this year's cohort is its broadest yet by the numbers organiser Tahaluf has published: more than 40 nationalities, spread across 12 broad sectors and over 60 subsectors, whittled down from an applicant pool north of 3,000. The prize pool is unusual for a conference pitch competition in that none of it comes at the cost of equity — the money is a grant rather than an investment, which changes the calculus for founders weighing whether a stage slot is worth the trip to Riyadh. The prize is split across six categories rather than awarded as one grand prize, and the categories say something about what LEAP is trying to reward. There is recognition for the single most outstanding startup in the competition, but also separate awards for an early-stage company still finding its feet and for a later-stage company organisers describe as having clear unicorn potential — an acknowledgment that a seed-stage idea and a scaling Series B company are not competing on the same terms. Further categories reward startups building for social impact and companies described as pushing the boundaries of what is possible, and a sixth — the LEAP Landing Award — is reserved specifically for a non-Saudi startup with high-growth potential looking to soft-land in the Kingdom. That last category matters more than it might look. Saudi Arabia has spent the past two years building out formal soft-landing infrastructure for the international startups it wants to attract — Blossom Accelerator was named LEAP's official soft-landing partner for exactly this purpose — and folding a soft-landing prize into the Kingdom's largest pitch competition is a way of pointing winners directly at the programmes built to receive them. Rocket Fuel sits alongside several other paths startups are using to reach LEAP's investor floor this year. Builders Tribe and P@SHA brought their own founder delegations from Africa, the Gulf and Pakistan, while SparkLabs Saudi used the show to debut eight portfolio companies from its first Riyadh cohort. Among the Rocket Fuel finalists themselves, LivNSense GreenOps made the top 100 with an industrial decarbonisation platform — one of relatively few finalists whose selection has been independently confirmed rather than folded into the general applicant count. What the public record does not yet contain is a winner. The finale falls on the last day of LEAP 2026, and as of this article the competition is still running its heats rather than handing out its cheques. The startups that make it onto the finale stage will be pitching in front of a floor that, according to LEAP's own investor programme, draws representatives from more than 900 investment firms — a bigger and more concentrated audience than most of the 100 finalists are likely to see again this year. None of the organisers' published material breaks the 100 finalists down by name, so it is not possible to say from public sources which specific companies have reached the final round beyond those, like LivNSense, that have announced it themselves. The number that will resolve everything else — who wins, and how the $1 million splits across six categories — will not exist until Rocket Fuel's finale concludes on 3 September. TechScoop is reporting from LEAP 2026 in Riyadh.