Date: 2026-05-18
🙌 Congratulations to the finalists and winners of the DLAB summer pitch event 2026!
We started with 44 startups in the pre-finals, 6 outstanding candidates advanced to the big final, but the powerhouse jury ultimately selected three winners. Congratulations to:
🌟NextGen Biotics
🌟Soq
🌟MindStash
Apart from the jury votes, the crowd voted Soq the winner of the Audience Award! Our other finalists absolutely crushed it too. A huge shoutout to: Samadhi's, HomeSea and Kernal Data Solutions.
In addition to our “regular” competition, 16 finalists from previous years competed against each other. They pitched for funding, which the audience was invited to distribute. MycoFarming®, Speaklee, Respira, and HANGA Studios all went home with a pot of coins.
It was an incredible day. Just how we like it: a lot happening, a lot of people coming together, and a lot of energy buzzing in the room. The interactions, the smiles, the little moments in between. What people kept mentioning to us afterwards: the vibe.
A big thank you to:
✨ The audience, for cheering everyone on
✨ Our community of startups, for supporting each other
✨ All the brave finalists and DLAB heroes, for giving us your best on stage
✨ The jury members of the pre-finals, for making the tough first selection
✨ The ecosystem for showing up: partners, investors, and especially our powerful jury: Laurie Lancee, Davide Iannuzzi, Jenny Tsin, Emmanuel Agha and Karola Szatmári-Philips.
It was a day of celebrating both the successes and learnings of the DLAB community, and we couldn’t have done it without our guests.
Music, food, drinks, and new connections. It was a blast!!
Thanks for joining the DLAB Summer Pitch '26 🫶
Sincerely,
Team DLAB VU
Photo by the talented Willemijn Beekman 📸
