Confluent has launched the Data Streaming Startup Challenge, a global competition to recognize early-stage startups that are putting data streaming at the heart of their businesses. The challenge aims to inspire and fuel the growth of startups across the data technology landscape with a grand prize of up to $500,000 investment and two runner-up prizes of up to $250,000 each. Confluent for Startups provides cost-free opportunities for early-stage companies to build their data architecture without compromising on scalability or cost-effectiveness. The competition is open to startups from around the world that meet specific eligibility criteria, including being established within the last five years and using Confluent Cloud for their data streaming infrastructure.