Startup Events

Best Startup Events in Europe

Europe's founder calendar has two peaks: November, with Web Summit in Lisbon and Slush in Helsinki in the same month, and May to June, when the EU-Startups Summit, South Summit, London Tech Week and VivaTech run back to back.

This guide lists the most useful startup and founder events in Europe from October 2026 to the end of 2027, with a focus on early-stage, bootstrapped and women founders. We checked every date on the organiser's own website and mark each event as Confirmed (date on the official site), Announced (date from a reliable second source) or Expected (based on past editions only). For events in one country, see our country guides, listed by region under "Startup events by country" below.

This article is regularly updated with new events. Do you know about an event that needs to be added? Send us some info and we will see if it's a fit.

🔗 Add an awesome event

Best Startup Events in Europe 2026–2027: Calendar from November 2026 to October 2027

Dates	Event	City	Startup pitch or programme
6–15 Nov 2026	Portugal Tech Week	Lisbon + 25 places	265+ free events
9–10 Nov 2026	WEConnect Europe & MENA Summit	Seville	Buyer matchmaking (women-owned firms)
9–12 Nov 2026	Web Summit	Lisbon	Startup programme by application
10 Nov 2026	Female Founders Bootcamp summit	Berlin	Investor pitch
11–12 Nov 2026	Great British Business Show	London	Free tickets
18–19 Nov 2026	Slush	Helsinki	Slush 100 pitch
23 Nov 2026	FFX Zurich	Zurich	Women founders matchmaking
25–26 Nov 2026	IMPACT Festival	Frankfurt	Impact startup pitches
1–4 Mar 2027	4YFN	Barcelona	4YFN Awards
10–12 Mar 2027	SKInnovation	Innsbruck	Ski Lift Pitch
18–19 Mar 2027	TechChill	Riga	Not yet published
18–19 Mar 2027	START Summit	St. Gallen	Pitch competitions
7–8 Apr 2027	Wolves Summit	Warsaw	Pitch stage
28–29 Apr 2027	Iceland Innovation Week	Reykjavik	Pitch competition
10–14 May 2027	ViennaUP	Vienna	Mostly free events
13–14 May 2027	EU-Startups Summit	Valletta	Pitch competition
17–19 May 2027	PODIM	Maribor	Pitch competition
19–20 May 2027	Infoshare	Gdańsk	Startup contest
19–21 May 2027	Latitude59	Tallinn	Not yet published
24–26 May 2027	AI Growth Summit Europe (ex SaaStock)	London	Not published
Late May 2027 (expected)	Dublin Tech Summit	Dublin	Dates not confirmed by the organiser
27 May 2027	Startup Days	Bern	Newcomers pitch track
2–3 Jun 2027	Hello Tomorrow	Amsterdam	Deep tech challenge
2–4 Jun 2027	South Summit	Madrid	Startup competition
7–11 Jun 2027	London Tech Week	London	Not published
10–12 Jun 2027	WMF – We Make Future	Bologna	Startup competition
16–17 Jun 2027	Arctic15	Helsinki	Cheap startup ticket
16–17 Jun 2027	Women in Tech Summit	Warsaw	Career-focused
16–17 Jun 2027	Startup Olé Marbella	Marbella	Free pitch sessions
16–19 Jun 2027	VivaTech	Paris	Corporate startup challenges
17–19 Aug 2027	sTARTUp Day	Tartu	Pitching stage
8–9 Sep 2027	TechBBQ	Copenhagen	North Star Pitch
27–29 Sep 2027	Bits & Pretzels	Munich	Pitch Corner
5–7 Oct 2027	How to Web	Bucharest	Spotlight pitch
Oct 2027	Sifted Summit	London	Scaleup tickets

November 2026: Lisbon, Helsinki and the women-founder events

Web Summit and Portugal Tech Week: 6–15 November 2026

📅 Web Summit 2026Confirmed

Dates	9–12 November 2026
Where	Lisbon, Portugal
Type	Conference and expo
Who it's for	Startups, investors and corporates
Tickets	General ticket €995 incl. tax; startup programme by application (women in tech tickets are sold out)
Official site	websummit.com

Europe's largest tech event. Around it, Portugal Tech Week lists more than 265 free events in Lisbon and 25 other places from 6 to 15 November, which is a cheap way into the scene if you can't buy a Web Summit ticket.

Slush: 18–19 November 2026

📅 Slush 2026Confirmed

Dates	18–19 November 2026
Where	Helsinki, Finland
Type	Founder and investor conference
Who it's for	Startups and investors
Tickets	Startup ticket €395 (sold out), investor €1,195
Official site	slush.org

Europe's biggest founder-investor meeting. The Slush 100 pitch competition offers €500,000 with no equity taken, and the European Innovation Council hosts a women's leadership networking breakfast on 18 November.

IMPACT Festival: 25–26 November 2026

📅 IMPACT Festival 2026Confirmed

Dates	25–26 November 2026
Where	Messe Frankfurt, Germany
Type	Festival and exhibition
Who it's for	Green and impact startups, corporates and impact investors
Tickets	Pass €300 net, reduced €150
Official site	impact-festival.earth

Germany's main meeting point for impact businesses and their investors, now at Messe Frankfurt instead of Offenbach.

Also in November: the free Great British Business Show at ExCeL London on 11–12 November, with practical seminars for small business owners, STATION F's free public evenings in Paris, such as the Paris Tech Forum on 16 November (STATION F events), and the women-founder events listed below.

Spring 2027: Barcelona, the Alps and the Baltics

4YFN: 1–4 March 2027

📅 4YFN 2027Confirmed

Dates	1–4 March 2027
Where	Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain
Type	Startup conference and expo, part of Mobile World Congress
Who it's for	Startups, investors and corporates
Tickets	Not published
Official site	4yfn.com

The 4YFN Awards give the top 20 startups €1,500, a free exhibition pod and four passes, and the winner €20,000, all in front of the Mobile World Congress crowd.

SKInnovation, TechChill and START Summit: March 2027

📅 SKInnovation 2027Confirmed

Dates	10–12 March 2027
Where	Innsbruck and Axamer Lizum, Austria
Type	Conference with skiing
Who it's for	Startups, investors and corporates
Tickets	Not published
Official site	skinnovation.at

📅 TechChill 2027Confirmed

Dates	18–19 March 2027 (side events 17 March)
Where	Riga, Latvia
Type	Founder and investor conference
Who it's for	Baltic founders and investors
Tickets	Not published
Official site	techchill.co

📅 START Summit 2027Confirmed

Dates	18–19 March 2027
Where	St. Gallen, Switzerland
Type	Student-run conference with pitch competitions
Who it's for	Students, first-time founders and investors
Tickets	Not published; free Founder Day Zero
Official site	startglobal.org

Three smaller events with good investor access: SKInnovation's pitch takes place on a ski lift, TechChill is the main Baltic founder event, and START Summit's pitch formats suit first-time founders.

Wolves Summit and Iceland Innovation Week: April 2027

📅 Wolves Summit 2027Confirmed

Dates	7–8 April 2027
Where	Warsaw, Poland
Type	Conference with investor matchmaking
Who it's for	Startups, VCs and corporates
Tickets	Not published (2026 startup basic ticket: €198)
Official site	wolvessummit.com

📅 Iceland Innovation Week 2027Confirmed

Dates	28–29 April 2027 (side events 26–29 April)
Where	Reykjavik, Iceland
Type	Festival with a pitch competition
Who it's for	Founders and investors
Tickets	Startup pass €110, general €380
Official site	innovationweek.is

Wolves Summit is the main founder-investor matchmaking event in Central and Eastern Europe; Iceland Innovation Week is affordable and has a pitch slot.

May and June 2027: the busiest weeks of the year

EU-Startups Summit: 13–14 May 2027

📅 EU-Startups Summit 2027Confirmed

Dates	13–14 May 2027
Where	Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta, Malta
Type	Conference with a pitch competition
Who it's for	Early-stage founders, angels and VCs (about 2,500 people)
Tickets	Not published on the summit page
Official site	eu-startups.com

Fifteen early-stage startups pitch for a prize package worth €1 million; applications open in December 2026. See our Malta guide for the other events that week.

ViennaUP, PODIM, Infoshare and Latitude59: May 2027

📅 ViennaUP 2027Confirmed

Dates	10–14 May 2027 (WarmUP 7–9 May)
Where	Vienna, Austria
Type	Decentralised startup festival
Who it's for	Founders and investors
Tickets	Most events free with RSVP
Official site	viennaup.com

📅 PODIM 2027Confirmed

Dates	17–19 May 2027
Where	Maribor, Slovenia
Type	Conference with a pitch competition
Who it's for	Central and Eastern European startups and investors
Tickets	Not published
Official site	podim.org

📅 Infoshare 2027Confirmed

Dates	19–20 May 2027
Where	AmberExpo, Gdańsk, Poland
Type	Tech conference and expo with a startup contest
Who it's for	Tech founders and startups
Tickets	Not published
Official site	infoshare.pl

📅 Latitude59 2027Confirmed

Dates	19–21 May 2027
Where	Tallinn, Estonia
Type	Founder and investor conference
Who it's for	Startups and investors
Tickets	Super early bird tickets on sale
Official site	latitude59.ee

Four strong regional events in one month. ViennaUP is mostly free; PODIM and Infoshare (with a 30,000 PLN startup contest) have open startup calls; Latitude59 is Estonia's flagship.

AI Growth Summit Europe, Dublin Tech Summit and Startup Days: late May 2027

📅 AI Growth Summit Europe 2027Confirmed

Dates	24–26 May 2027
Where	Tobacco Dock, London, UK
Type	B2B SaaS and AI founder conference
Who it's for	SaaS and AI founders and operators
Tickets	Not clearly published
Official site	founderpath.com

📅 Startup Days 2027Confirmed

Dates	27 May 2027
Where	Kursaal, Bern, Switzerland
Type	One-day conference with a Newcomers pitch track
Who it's for	Founders, investors and SMEs
Tickets	Not published
Official site	startupdays.ch

AI Growth Summit Europe is the new name of SaaStock Europe, now in London. Dublin Tech Summit is expected again in late May 2027 at the RDS in Dublin, but its official website is offline and the organiser hasn't confirmed dates, so check before you book.

Hello Tomorrow and South Summit: 2–4 June 2027

📅 Hello Tomorrow Global Summit 2027Confirmed

Dates	2–3 June 2027 (Investor Day 1 June)
Where	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Type	Deep tech conference and challenge
Who it's for	Deep tech founders and VCs
Tickets	Not yet published for 2027
Official site	hello-tomorrow.org

📅 South Summit Madrid 2027Confirmed

Dates	2–4 June 2027
Where	Madrid, Spain
Type	Conference with a startup competition
Who it's for	Startups, investors and corporates
Tickets	Not published
Official site	southsummit.io

Hello Tomorrow has moved from Paris to Amsterdam; applications to its challenge close on 30 November 2026. South Summit is Southern Europe's biggest founder-investor event.

London Tech Week, WMF and VivaTech: June 2027

📅 London Tech Week 2027Confirmed

Dates	7–11 June 2027 (expo 7–9 June)
Where	Olympia and venues across London, UK
Type	Tech week and expo
Who it's for	Founders, investors and enterprise buyers
Tickets	Not published
Official site	londontechweek.com

📅 WMF – We Make Future 2027Confirmed

Dates	10–12 June 2027
Where	BolognaFiere, Bologna, Italy
Type	Innovation fair with a startup competition
Who it's for	Businesses, startups and investors
Tickets	€99 + VAT early offer (list €649 + VAT)
Official site	wemakefuture.it

📅 VivaTech 2027Confirmed

Dates	16–19 June 2027
Where	Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, France
Type	Expo and conference with corporate startup challenges
Who it's for	Startups, corporates and investors
Tickets	Startup pass from €180 excl. VAT (early rate, autumn 2026), for companies under 8 years old with fewer than 100 staff
Official site	vivatech.com

Three very different June events: London's fringe programme, Italy's biggest innovation fair (see our Italy guide) and VivaTech's corporate challenges, which put startups in front of big buyers.

Arctic15 and Startup Olé Marbella: 16–17 June 2027

📅 Arctic15 2027Confirmed

Dates	16–17 June 2027
Where	Helsinki, Finland
Type	Founder and investor conference
Who it's for	Startups, investors and corporates
Tickets	Startup tickets €49 to €99 + VAT
Official site	arctic15.com

📅 Startup Olé Marbella 2027Confirmed

Dates	16–17 June 2027
Where	Marbella, Spain
Type	Festival with pitch awards
Who it's for	Startups and investors
Tickets	Free content open to the public
Official site	startupolemarbella.eu

Two of the cheapest ways into a founder-investor room in Europe: Arctic15's startup ticket starts at €49, and Startup Olé Marbella's sessions are free.

Summer and autumn 2027

📅 sTARTUp Day 2027Confirmed

Dates	17–19 August 2027
Where	Tartu, Estonia
Type	Startup festival with a pitching stage
Who it's for	Startups, researchers and investors
Tickets	Startup ticket €127
Official site	startupday.ee

📅 TechBBQ 2027Confirmed

Dates	8–9 September 2027
Where	Bella Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
Type	Founder conference with pitch competitions
Who it's for	Startups and investors
Tickets	Startup €299, founder €399
Official site	techbbq.dk

📅 Bits & Pretzels 2027Confirmed

Dates	27–29 September 2027
Where	Munich, Germany
Type	Founders festival
Who it's for	Founders and investors
Tickets	Not yet published for 2027
Official site	bitsandpretzels.com

📅 How to Web 2027Confirmed

Dates	5–7 October 2027
Where	Bucharest, Romania
Type	Founder conference with the Spotlight pitch
Who it's for	Early-stage founders and investors
Tickets	Startup ticket €119
Official site	howtoweb.co

sTARTUp Day has moved from January to August. TechBBQ is the biggest Nordic founder event after Slush, Bits & Pretzels is Germany's largest founder festival, and How to Web is the main founder conference in Eastern Europe. Sifted Summit returns to London in October 2027 for scaleups, with launch tickets at £99 plus VAT.

Events for women founders in Europe

Women in Tech EMEA Summit, 29–30 October 2026, smartvillage Berlin: a conference for 1,200+ women in tech, run by FemTechConf. femtechconf.com
WEConnect International Europe & MENA Summit, 9–10 November 2026, Seville: one-to-one meetings between women-owned businesses and corporate buyers. weconnectinternational.org
Female Founders Bootcamp, ending in a summit on 10 November 2026 in Berlin: a four-week programme for women-led tech startups that ends with an investor pitch; €500 excl. VAT. female-founders.org
EIC women's leadership breakfast at Slush, 18 November 2026, Helsinki.
FFX Zurich, 23 November 2026: a curated, application-only day of investor matchmaking for about 120 people. An FFX Barcelona follows in early 2027. FFX
EIT Women and Girls in STEM Forum, 26 November 2026, Prague.
One Tech World, 15 April 2027: a free virtual conference by WeAreTechWomen.
Women in Tech Global Conference, 18–21 May 2027: virtual, with in-person satellite events and a startup and innovation day on 21 May. womentech.net
Perspektywy Women in Tech Summit, 16–17 June 2027, Warsaw: one of Europe's largest women-in-tech gatherings, more career-focused than founder-focused.
Women in AI Global Summit, 11–12 November 2027, London: a hybrid summit for women working in AI, from £499. womeninaiglobalsummit.com

Two EU funding calls for women are open now:

European Prize for Women Innovators (EIC and EIT): applications close on 1 December 2026 at 17:00 CET; the top prize is €100,000, with a Rising Innovators category for women under 35. Details
Women TechEU: €75,000 in non-dilutive funding for women-led deep tech startups, with deadlines on 14 January, 1 April and 8 July 2027. Details

Read more about how women founders in Europe are closing the funding gap, and if you organise an event for women founders, send it to us.

Events that changed, moved or ended

Many events from earlier versions of this guide have changed. What we found:

Moved: Hello Tomorrow from Paris to Amsterdam; TNW Conference from Amsterdam to London (no 2027 dates yet); IMPACT Festival from Offenbach to Messe Frankfurt; sTARTUp Day from January to August.
Renamed: SaaStock Europe is now AI Growth Summit Europe; SEE ITS is now SEE FORWARD Summit; Startup Fair Pulse is now Startup Fair (Vilnius); START Global's event is START Summit.
No longer in Europe: Startup Grind has held no European conference since 2021, and TechCrunch's early-stage event has only ever run in the US.
Ended: Pioneers Vienna (last festival 2019) and the Future of Climate Tech competition (last held 2021).
Could not be found: Reboot Conference Berlin, InnoTech Expo Brussels, Fintech Europe Frankfurt and Hellobrain Startup Festival.
Still running, 2027 dates not yet published: Slush 2027 and Web Summit 2027 (both expected in November), TNW Conference in London, GITEX Europe in Berlin (now called GITEX AI Europe), Tech.eu Summit, Entrepreneurship Avenue, Innovation Week Prague, SET Tech Festival, the EIC Summit (expected in June) and Startup Europe Week (expected in late May).
Not real or paused: there is no Lisbon Startup Week or Paris Startup Week, and STATION F's Founders Program, which ran its demo days, is on pause.

EU funding dates to plan your event year around

EIC Accelerator: the last full-proposal cut-off of 2026 is 4 November at 17:00 Brussels time, and short proposals can be sent at any time. A draft of the 2027 work programme proposes four cut-offs instead of six; the dates are not final. EIC Accelerator
EIT Awards: 2 December 2026 in Budapest, with prizes of €50,000, €30,000 and €20,000 per category.
EU Inc.: in March 2026 the European Commission adopted its proposal for a single EU company form (the "28th regime") as part of the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy. It still has to pass Parliament and Council.

Before you apply, read our guide to writing an EU grant application, and see the top startup accelerators in Europe and the largest European VC firms.

How to choose European startup events

Pick one big event and two small ones. Web Summit, Slush or VivaTech for reach; a regional event like TechChill, PODIM or How to Web for real conversations.
Apply for startup programmes. Web Summit, Slush, 4YFN, EU-Startups and South Summit all select startups for cheaper tickets, stands or pitch slots. See more startup competitions.
Use the cheap tickets. Arctic15 (from €49), Iceland Innovation Week (€110), How to Web (€119) and sTARTUp Day (€127) cost a fraction of the big conferences, and ViennaUP and Startup Olé Marbella are largely free.
Combine trips. Lisbon in November (Portugal Tech Week and Web Summit), and May to June, when ten events run within six weeks.
Go where your investors are. Check which funds attend before you buy; our list of startup media outlets in Europe helps you follow event news, and our guide to the best cities for startups in Europe helps you pick a base.

List your event in this guide

Do you run a startup, tech or investor event in Europe? Send us the name, dates, venue and official link, and we'll check whether it fits this guide. We list events for founders, with a real date and an official page.

This article is regularly updated with new events. Do you know about an event that needs to be added? Send us some info and we will see if it's a fit.

🔗 Add an awesome event

Startup events by country

Our country guides list every verified startup, tech and investor event in each country, with dates, venues and tickets.

Western Europe: Netherlands
Nordics and Baltics: Sweden
Southern Europe: Cyprus, Italy, Malta
Western Balkans: Albania

FAQ

What are the biggest startup events in Europe?

Web Summit (Lisbon, 9–12 November 2026), Slush (Helsinki, 18–19 November 2026), VivaTech (Paris, 16–19 June 2027), South Summit (Madrid, 2–4 June 2027) and 4YFN (Barcelona, 1–4 March 2027).

What are the cheapest startup events in Europe?

Arctic15 startup tickets start at €49, Iceland Innovation Week at €110, How to Web at €119 and sTARTUp Day at €127. Most ViennaUP events, Portugal Tech Week events and Startup Olé Marbella sessions are free.

Which European startup events have pitch competitions?

Slush 100, the EU-Startups Summit pitch, the 4YFN Awards, South Summit's startup competition, Hello Tomorrow's challenge, PODIM, Infoshare, TechBBQ, Wolves Summit and How to Web's Spotlight pitch, among others.

Are there events for women founders in Europe?

Yes: the Female Founders Bootcamp summit in Berlin (10 November 2026), FFX Zurich (23 November 2026), the WEConnect summit in Seville (9–10 November 2026) and the Women in Tech Global Conference in May 2027.

What happened to TNW Conference and SaaStock?

TNW Conference has moved from Amsterdam to London, with no 2027 dates yet. SaaStock Europe is now called AI Growth Summit Europe and takes place in London on 24–26 May 2027.

When is the next EIC Accelerator deadline?

The last full-proposal cut-off of 2026 is 4 November at 17:00 Brussels time. Short proposals can be submitted at any time; the 2027 cut-off dates are not final yet.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.

Violetta Bonenkamp, F/MS founder

2026-10-15 10:52