Startup Pack is back. After giving away 1,000 bundles of free web tools to newly established startups last October, the entrepreneur who set up the giveaway has gone ahead with a second, developer-focused Pack — with fewer packs up for grabs but a larger range of freebies on board, including from Github, Zencoder and Amazon Web Services.
The appetite for the first edition of Startup Pack — which saw more than 2,000 applications from more than 50 countries — convinced founder Matthieu Vaxelaire to do a follow up. “Bigger, better and crazier, for this second edition we teamed up with 15 best-in-class partners to offer a unique bundle of free software especially for developers,” he says.
Giving away a quarter of the quantity of packs in the second run has allowed them to include “better offers from all partners”, says Vaxelaire, and also to have “smaller” partners onboard — who may not have been able to afford to offer their service for free to 1,000 winners.
To be eligible to apply for a chance to win one of the 250 packs, startups must be incorporated, have been formed less than two years ago and have raised no more than $250,000. There is no restriction on startup location.
Here’s the full list of free booty which eligible startups are in with a chance of winning:
The application process for Startup Pack 2.0 has been made slightly more involving than last year’s run. Applicants will first have to prove they are human, and then prove they can code.
“We built a unique ‘geek-friendly’ applications process,” says Vaxelaire. “Instead of ‘simply’ fill-in a form with your info, you need to prove us that you are a human (with a funny test) and then you have to submit your application via an API call.”
Techcrunch event
San Francisco, CA | October 13-15, 2026
Startup Pack’s rules for the giveaway are as follows:
The winners will be selected from applicants that meet the entry criteria using “a simple random selection functionality”, according to Vaxelaire.
He says all data gathered in the application process will be deleted once the giveaway is completed, with the exception of email addresses (which are retained). “Of course we don’t sell their emails and we don’t spam,” he confirms.
To apply for a pack, visit the Startup Pack website.
Natasha was a senior reporter for TechCrunch, from September 2012 to April 2025, based in Europe. She joined TC after a stint reviewing smartphones for CNET UK and, prior to that, more than five years covering business technology for silicon.com (now folded into TechRepublic), where she focused on mobile and wireless, telecoms & networking, and IT skills issues. She has also freelanced for organisations including The Guardian and the BBC. Natasha holds a First Class degree in English from Cambridge University, and an MA in journalism from Goldsmiths College, University of London.