Rio Ferdinand & Sara Davies to Judge Start-Up Pitch Competition at Alibaba.com's CoCreate Europe Event

$400,000 Up for Grabs as most innovative new product ideas will be picked live in London on the 14^thof November

LONDON, Oct. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Alibaba.com, a leading platform for global business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, today announced that Manchester United legend-turned-entrepreneur and global content creator Rio Ferdinand OBE¹, and entrepreneur and broadcaster Sara Davies MBE², will lead the judging panel at Alibaba.com's CoCreate Pitch, a new global competition spotlighting the next generation of product-based innovation in the UK and Europe. The overall judging panel will consist of representatives from the UK, Germany, France and the US - including crowdfunding platform Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor - joining Rio and Sara. Kickstarter is the official Crowdfunding Partner of CoCreate Pitch 2025³.

Set to take place during Alibaba.com's inaugural sourcing and e-commerce event CoCreate Europe in London on 14^th November, the competition will see 30 finalists pitch their product ideas live to the judging panel with ten winners receiving up to $20,000 worth of prizes. The grand winner will receive $200,000 to help develop their product⁴, out of a total prize pool of $400,000 worth of prizes. CoCreate has been hosted in Las Vegas since 2023, bringing together thousands of SMEs under one roof to collaborate, forge sourcing relationships and unlock growth. Alibaba.com is now expanding the global footprint of this event with the launch of CoCreate Europe.

Rio Ferdinand says: "On the pitch I learnt the value of ambition, fresh ideas and determination, and those same qualities have guided me in building a successful business career. As a judge at CoCreate Pitch, I'm looking forward to sharing those experiences and supporting the next generation of innovative product-based start-ups in Europe."

Sara Davies says: "I've spent several years spotting new business ideas and helping to turn them into a reality, so being asked to judge Alibaba.com's CoCreate Pitch competition felt like a perfect fit. There is a lot of untapped potential amongst Europe's entrepreneurs, and I'm keen to hearing fresh product ideas and helping to kickstart new businesses."

Kuo Zhang, President, Alibaba.com, says: "We're delighted to welcome Rio and Sara as judges to CoCreate Pitch at the inaugural CoCreate Europe conference in London in November. We look forward to welcoming SMEs from across the continent to join us in person at the event, and are excited to bring this unique sourcing ecosystem conference to Europe for the first time."