Slush 2026 preview: what to expect from Europe’s big startup meetup in Helsinki
Slush brings thousands of founders and investors to Helsinki on 18–19 November. Here is who is speaking, where the AI conversation is heading and what to watch.
If you want to know which AI companies Europe’s investors will back next year, Slush is one of the best places to look. The Helsinki event is built around one job: putting young tech companies in front of the people who fund them. What gets said on its stages, and who gets meetings, often hints at where money and talent are going next.
The basics
- When: the main event runs Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 November 2026 (Slush).
- Where: Messukeskus, the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre (Messuaukio 1). An Investor Day takes place the day before, 17 November, at Finlandia Hall, and a “Day 0” programme for founders runs the same day at Tanssin Talo (Slush event info).
- How big: the organisers expect 12,000+ attendees, 200+ speakers and 600+ side events across the city. They say 76% of attendees are startups or investors.
- Tickets: the Slush site lists a two-day pass at €395 and investor and “ecosystem” passes at €1,195 (prices include Finnish VAT). Startups have to apply, and the Slush team reviews each application.
Who is speaking
Slush has announced a first batch of 2026 speakers (full list). The AI-related names include:
- David Silver, founder and CEO of Ineffable Intelligence, best known for leading DeepMind’s AlphaGo work.
- Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock partner, who also co-founded Inflection and Manas AI.
- Anton Osika, co-founder and CEO of Lovable, the Swedish company that lets people build apps by describing them in plain language. Lovable’s head of growth, Elena Verna, is also on the bill.
- Richard Socher of You.com and Recursive, Parag Agrawal (Parallel Web Systems, formerly Twitter’s CEO) and Matthew Prince of Cloudflare.
- Jan Oberhauser of n8n, the workflow-automation tool, and Fabrizio del Maffeo of Axelera AI, a European AI chip maker.
- Investors including Sonya Huang (Sequoia) and Matt Turck (FirstMark), analyst Benedict Evans, and Moritz Baier-Lentz, listed as a senior advisor at OpenAI.
Politics is on the programme too: Finland’s president Alexander Stubb and Ekaterina Zaharieva, the European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, are both listed.
The AI themes to watch
Slush does not run a single “AI track”, and AI is one of more than 50 sectors among attending startups. But the lineup points to a few clear conversations:
- AI agents. An agent is software that carries out tasks for you, step by step, rather than just answering questions. Lovable, n8n and Parallel Web Systems all build on that idea. Expect questions about whether these tools can earn real money, not just attention.
- Europe’s place in the race. With an EU Commissioner on stage and a European chip maker in the lineup, watch for talk of whether Europe can build its own AI, from chips to models, instead of relying on US firms.
- Where research goes next. David Silver’s appearance is worth watching for hints on how AI systems might learn from experience rather than only from text scraped from the internet.
What to watch
Most of the deals happen off stage, in more than 20,000 pre-booked meetings and hundreds of side events. Funding announcements timed for the week are a useful signal of which AI startups investors are betting on. Slush usually streams its main stage, so you can follow along without a ticket. We will cover the most important AI news from Helsinki.
Speaker lists can change. Check the official Slush site before you travel.
