And that’s a wrap! The 2026 version of the EU-Startups Summit has formally come to an in depth. Over two action-packed days in Malta, and about 2,400 founders, buyers, and startup fans got here collectively to alternate concepts, discover inspiration, and make significant connections.
An enormous thanks to everybody who joined us in sunny Malta – your vitality and enthusiasm made this our greatest and most fun version but!
The Pitch Competitors obtained over 1,600 purposes from among the most promising early-stage startups in Europe. After a radical and aggressive choice course of, 15 distinctive finalists had been invited to pitch on our predominant stage for an opportunity to win a prize bundle value over €1 million (wow!) and the coveted title of Pitch Competitors Champion.
The Prize Package deal
This 12 months’s stakes had been excessive! Valued at over €1 million, the prize was juicier than ever! Filled with funding alternatives and credit for nice instruments and providers to supercharge a startup’s development, this prize was set to rework the winner’s entrepreneurial journey. Let’s see what was in it:
- €250k Funding Alternative with Look AI Ventures. The winner will get fast-tracked and invited to pitch immediately in entrance of Look AI Ventures‘ funding committee, and after the due diligence course of, there can be a funding alternative of as much as €250k.
- $220k Funding Alternative with Techstars. The winner can be fast-tracked for a precedence interview to affix Techstars. This ensures that the startups’ marketing strategy can be reviewed by the Techstars funding group and probably the most related program managing director. Following a optimistic due diligence course of, the startup may have the chance to affix a Techstars accelerator programme, together with a $220k funding.
- As much as €434k in Funding from Malta Venture Capital, matching the funding of Look AI Ventures and/or Techstars, if the successful startup is both based mostly in Malta, open to relocating to Malta or contemplating a subsidiary in Malta.
- As much as €100k in Cloud Credit from IONOS to help your startups’ internet hosting and scaling wants with a trusted European cloud supplier.
- $24k in Credit from Cyscale. The successful startup will obtain cloud safety credit to observe and safe its cloud atmosphere, serving to to detect misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and potential threats.
- $24k Draper University scholarship (as much as 2 co-founders, $12k per founder), together with a assured interview with the Draper College choice committee and funding fund and, upon choice, a full scholarship protecting the programme prices, with lodging and co-working area within the coronary heart of Silicon Valley. Flights, visas, and private bills not included.
- $12k in Credit from LUA AI to construct an AI agent that helps automate duties and interactions.
- Acquire €12k in worth at Make, together with €6k in Credit (Make Groups, 3.6m credit) and €6k in session providers, to construct no-code automated workflows utilizing Make’s visible automation platform.
- As much as $12k in Credit from Notion (6 months free Enterprise Plan with limitless AI), entry to Notion Perks (unique reductions on different software program) and to Notion Champions Community.
- 90% low cost on HubSpot for Startups Professional Suite (value as much as $25k), together with entry to HubSpot’s Free CRM and Gross sales, Advertising and marketing, and Operations instruments. The prize additionally features a $1,000 matched credit score for LinkedIn and Google Adverts by way of HubSpot, in addition to as much as $150,000 in financial savings from HubSpot partners. T&C apply.
- €10k in JetBrains licenses for important improvement and group instruments, together with award-winning instruments corresponding to IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, and JetBrains AI, trusted by 50,000+ startups worldwide.
- €10k in Remote Credit to help worldwide hiring and assist groups entry international expertise. Credit are legitimate for 12 months.
- €9,900 D-ID Video Maker Enterprise plan, 5-user bundle with one 12 months of free use.
- €5k in worth for an exhibition desk on the EU-Startups Summit 2027, together with 3 occasion tickets, and a 3-year CLUB membership.
The Jury
The chosen groups obtained useful suggestions from a jury of well-known enterprise capital buyers. This 12 months’s judging panel included:
Pitching on the Fundamental Stage
From CleanTech and DroneTech to HealthTech and AI, the 15 finalists represented the various, daring way forward for European innovation.
The startups that took the stage had been: Agilica, Agnia Aerospace, AlterEcho, Arclight Aerospace, Asvel, Cooled Motors, DAITABLE, eMomentum, Entrelacs, Muun Health, Snoika, Systellar Space, Vecify, Warden Machinery, and Xydra Labs.
Every pitch delivered distinctive concepts, highly effective missions, and scalable options, making the jury’s choice tougher than ever. The extent of competitors was sky-high, and the Maltese solar wasn’t the one factor producing warmth!
And the winner is … AlterEcho!
Based in 2025 in Denmark, AlterEcho is growing a robotic embodiment platform for the life sciences sector, combining robotic avatars and AI brokers to help distant work in cleanrooms and unsafe environments. Its know-how goals to take away the danger of human contamination from pharmaceutical and medical settings, serving to operators perform advanced procedures with dexterity, spatial consciousness, and nil bodily presence inside managed environments.
AlterEcho permits expert professionals to manage robotic avatars from outdoors cleanrooms via immersive interfaces. The platform helps duties corresponding to pipetting, plate dealing with, microscopy preparation, sterile compounding, and unsafe pattern preparation, whereas integrating frequent laboratory instruments, fixtures, and task-specific end-effectors the place wanted.
Fairly than changing human operators, AlterEcho modifications how they work. Operators stay in management from a console, with the power to supervise and take over procedures immediately. The system data instructions, motions, pictures, timings, and robotic observations, permitting repeated procedures to achieve assistive automation over time and making a path in the direction of more and more autonomous workflows.
The corporate serves pharmaceutical producers, specialty laboratories, and medical settings working in aseptic processing, radiopharma, infectious illness, vaccine R&D, sterile compounding, and ATMPs. Based by a group with expertise constructing FDA-approved robotics and AI at Novo Nordisk, AlterEcho is backed by Techstars and Innovation Fund Denmark and was additionally the winner of the SXSW Pitch Competitors 2026.
OUR EVENT SPONSORS
Malta Enterprise is Malta’s financial improvement company, facilitating financial development, funding, and innovation by providing a variety of help providers for native and international enterprises organising a productive presence in Malta. As a key participant in Malta’s financial panorama, it contributes to the nation’s prosperity by attracting investments, supporting companies, and driving innovation, thereby reinforcing Malta’s place as a sexy vacation spot for entrepreneurs and buyers alike. Malta Enterprise actively cultivates a vibrant startup ecosystem, taking part in a pivotal position in fostering a conducive atmosphere for startups and providing tailor-made help and incentives to empower rising companies.
M. Demajo Group is a number one enterprise participant in Malta, with a profitable historical past spanning 115 years. The Group’s development and diversification have resulted in a large protection of enterprise sectors via a dedication to long-term outcomes.
M. Demajo Group’s workforce is 500 sturdy, and their varied actions have been developed via natural development, acquisitions, partnerships, and startups. Its sturdy monetary scenario and moral requirements, its enterprise status, and its famend monitor document as a enterprise companion are all key components in its continued growth.
The IONOS Cloud Start-up Program gives younger firms with as much as €100,000 in cloud credit for as much as 5 years after their founding. Begin-ups profit from a sovereign IT infrastructure “Made in Germany,” providing 100% GDPR compliance and full authorized certainty. IONOS Cloud ensures technological freedom with out vendor lock-in. Lengthy-term help can also be ensured: unique reductions after the primary 12 months allow a seamless transition into the IONOS Cloud ISV Companion Program. On this manner, digital sovereignty turns into a strategic aggressive benefit from founding to scaling.
