Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

Waking up to Wolves Summit

blank
Credit: Wolves Summit

Before we dive in, quick shoutout to all startup founders reading this article – we have a special code for you to register for FREE to join Wolves Summit

Regarding this year’s “Connections That Matter” theme – how are you planning to make these connections during Wolves Summit 2021 valuable/unique for attendees?

Returning for its 6th year, Wolves Summit will bring together prominent industry influencers executives, influential media, and more than 500 startups to explore the latest technology trends and innovations from Poland and surrounding European countries.

Focusing on the theme “Connections That Matter”, the summit which takes place October 19-21st is set to become our largest event to date, attracting over 5,000 participants in-person and online. We are here to build a truly flourishing startup ecosystem on both an EU and international level, being an innovation bridge between both the Central and Eastern European regions and the tech powerhouses of the world.

With this year’s edition embracing a fully hybrid model, more founders, investors, and innovators will be able to access the unparalleled match-making opportunities and industry-leading speakers we have lined up. As previous attendees will attest to, Wolves Summit has been instrumental in facilitating the success of some of the region’s most successful startups and now draws the cream of the VC community, keen to invest in this next generation of tech titans.

blank
Credit: Wolves Summit

This event is clearly a must-attend event for investors interested in expanding their portfolios into the CEE region; which investors are you the most excited about hosting this year?

Startups should know that they can engage with investors of all types at the summit. The event brings the most influential investors from top international funds together with leading angels, accelerators, Corporate Venture Capital, and EU financing options.

Some noticeable names that have been with us over the years are Accel, Seedcamp, SOSV, Sunfish VC, Flashpoint, Kaya VC, Peak Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Expon Capital, AI Startup Incubator, EIB Group (the European Union’s bank and European Investment Fund), among others.

Corporate venture capital (CVC) investment can be a real game-changer for startups, but it has traditionally been difficult to secure. This year we are joined by senior representatives from UNIQA Ventures, Elevator Ventures, Wayra X, Brand Capital (The Time Group), and many more.

blank
Credit: Wolves Summit

Although most Tech events tend to incorporate some level of startup pitches, it’s rare that we see any event hosting two startup pitching competitions! What’s the difference between these pitching competitions?

The Great Pitch Contest is Wolves Summit’s official startup competition. Each edition attracts over 1,000 startup applications out of which only 40-50 tech game-changers get to pitch in the Semi-finals in front of investors, corporations, and other attendees. The top 10 startups will be selected to pitch in the Finals on Thursday, October 21st.

This year’s winners will receive the opportunity to pitch directly in front of AI Startup Incubator’s investment board committee, a guaranteed interview with a Techstars Global Startup Pipeline Manager, a scholarship for the next cohort of the InnovX-BCR program starting in November, as well exclusive access to a tech stack from leading providers such as Amazon, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, and others.

At Wolves Summit we strive to support the growth of the CEE innovation ecosystem, and we know we can best achieve this by partnering with forward-thinking organisations and individuals sharing our mission. We are happy to be able to provide the platform and tangible support to UiPath to select the next automation champions in the CEE and Turkey.

UiPath Automation Award is an annual competition designed to identify new technologies and products that can have a global impact and revolutionize the larger ecosystem of automation solutions. The awards ceremony will be held live on stage and broadcasted to the home audience on October 20th. The finalists in the two award categories are Start-Up Category: Demoboost (Poland), Serket (Hungary/The Netherlands), Easysales (Romania); Scale-up Category: Apify (Czech Republic), Powerful Medical (Slovakia), Dronehub (Poland)

blank
Credit: Wolves Summit

There’s a new CEE Innovation Track taking place at Wolves Summit this year; what sets this apart from the other tracks being planned for the event?

CEE Innovation Track is a dedicated programme allowing external ecosystem players to craft and showcase their own content in front of business leaders and decision-makers. Wolves Summit will provide the partners with the right platform to bond over common challenges, and create business opportunities that help maintain and grow the region’s tech sector.

This track is just one of our initiatives to connect the tech and innovation ecosystems Wroclaw in the West to Moscow in the East, and Tallinn in the North to Tirana in the South. We are getting ready to launch a new concept in 2022 – a one-week festival of live tech events taking place throughout Central Eastern Europe and beyond. It is set to become the largest, decentralised festival in Europe uniting tech and talent in a world-class hub of innovation.

This year’s Innovation Track partners include MIT Enterprise Forum, Sx.tech, Made in Wroclaw, InnovX, and PODIM, and will offer attendees an intriguing slate of co-located events throughout the day in addition to conference programming.

We are expecting all the current Innovation Track partners to be part of the 2022 event and welcome other innovators to join. If you are an event organizer, an organization supporting startups and innovation, or a large corporation willing to make a difference, express your interest here.

you might also like

FINTECH 1200x650 1
Fundraising 1 day ago

London fintech Outpost raises $17.5M Series A led by Ribbit Capital to scale its AI-powered merchant-of-record platform, simplifying cross-border payments, tax, and compliance for global merchants.

AI fintech funding
Fundraising 2 days ago

The European fintech sector continues to attract early-stage capital, with AI-powered financial modelling emerging as a particularly active frontier for investor interest. As finance teams across high-growth organisations grapple with the limitations of static spreadsheets and fragmented planning tools, a new generation of startups is building intelligent infrastructure to replace legacy workflows. Stockholm-based Galdera Labs has now entered this space with a €1.5 million pre-seed round to develop an AI-native financial modelling platform designed for growth-stage finance teams. The funding will support platform development, reasoning infrastructure buildout, and an initial customer rollout targeting fast-growing companies with complex financial operations. Galdera’s platform combines a high-performance calculation engine with a semantic memory layer that links financial data directly to underlying business context, assumptions, and strategic decisions — enabling finance teams to query models in natural language and simulate complex scenarios in minutes rather than weeks. Klarna Veterans Back AI Financial Modelling Vision The pre-seed round was led by J12 Ventures, with participation from Antler and a roster of angel investors drawn from notable European technology companies including Klarna, DeepL, Stripe, and Plata. The investor composition reflects strong confidence in the founding team’s pedigree and the market opportunity for intelligent financial planning infrastructure. Galdera’s three co-founders — Evan Rumpza (CEO), Mattia Scolari (CFO), and Giovanni Casula (CTO) — met at Klarna during the fintech giant’s most intensive growth phase. Responsible for financial planning across 26 markets, the team experienced first-hand how manual processes and fragmented Excel models struggled to keep pace as business conditions shifted faster than traditional models could be rebuilt. To manage the complexity, they built an internal system at Klarna that replaced the static planning cycle with a continuously updated model — enabling what previously required large analyst teams to be handled by just three people, supporting the company through both capital raises and IPO preparations. The lessons learned from that experience became the foundation for Galdera Labs. “We’ve personally sat with 50 spreadsheets at two in the morning using tools that were supposed to solve the problem but didn’t. That is the infrastructure we are building with Galdera,” said Evan Rumpza, CEO and co-founder of Galdera Labs. Building AI Finance Tools for the Next Generation of CFOs The market for AI finance tools and financial modelling software is evolving rapidly as organisations demand more dynamic planning capabilities. Traditional spreadsheet-based approaches, while flexible, often create fragmented workflows where assumptions become outdated and institutional knowledge is lost between budget cycles. Galdera’s platform addresses this gap with a two-layer architecture: a powerful calculation engine capable of handling large data volumes, paired with a semantic memory layer that preserves the reasoning behind financial decisions over time. The platform is designed to function as an always-on financial forecast that automatically updates as business conditions change. Users configure scenarios once, and the model recalculates impacts across revenue, costs, margins, and other key metrics in real time. This approach positions Galdera within a growing wave of European fintech startups applying artificial intelligence not merely as an overlay on existing tools, but as a foundational redesign of how financial planning operates. With the launch, Galdera is opening its platform to its first customers: fast-growing companies and organisations with complex operations where the pace of decision-making has outgrown the tools finance teams traditionally rely on. Early adopters already include companies such as DeasyLabs, Unify, and Counsel. The pre-seed round positions Galdera Labs at an early but promising stage in a sector where demand for intelligent, context-aware financial infrastructure is accelerating across European markets. As AI continues to reshape enterprise workflows, the intersection of financial modelling and machine reasoning represents a significant opportunity for startups capable of delivering genuine operational value to scaling businesses. Summary

AevoLoop circular plastics recycling technology funding announcement with plastic waste processing
Fundraising 2 days ago

The sustainable consumer goods sector is witnessing growing investor appetite as environmentally conscious brands prove they can combine purpose with profitability. East London-based Allday Goods, the cult kitchen knife brand that transforms plastic waste into chef-quality blades, has raised £765,000 in a seed round led by FIGR Ventures to scale its operations from artisan favourite to mainstream kitchen staple. Founded in 2021 by ex-chef Hugo Worsley, Allday Goods manufactures kitchen knives with handles crafted entirely from recycled plastic waste — sourced from Maldon Salt buckets, milk bottle handles, discarded plant containers, and fishing nets washed up on British shores. The brand, which started in Worsley’s parents’ shed using a repurposed toastie maker, has already achieved profitability with minimal external investment. Products consistently sell out within minutes during online drops, and queues have formed at London pop-ups, reflecting a level of consumer demand that few sustainable brands can match at this stage. FIGR Ventures Leads Seed Round with Sustainability-Focused Backers The £765,000 round was led by FIGR Ventures, with participation from Anotherway Ventures, Machroes Holdings — the family office of Lord Mervyn Davies — and angel investor Tom Gozney, founder of the premium pizza oven brand Gozney. The investor mix signals confidence in Allday Goods’ ability to bridge the gap between sustainable manufacturing and scalable consumer product design. Allday Goods’ knives pair handles made from 100% recycled food-grade polypropylene with British and Japanese steel blades. The company collects, cleans, shreds, and remoulds plastic waste into distinctive, colourful handles that carry visible traces of their former lives — a design choice that has become central to the brand’s identity. Each knife effectively diverts plastic from landfill whilst delivering professional-grade performance. Worsley commented on the raise, noting that the team had built the brand slowly and intentionally, and that securing backing from investors they genuinely admire represents a significant milestone for the next chapter of growth. From Cult Following to Mainstream Market Opportunity Allday Goods has already demonstrated significant commercial traction without substantial marketing spend. The brand’s high-profile collaborations with Ottolenghi, Soho House, Maldon Salt, Kerrygold, and Paul Smith have positioned it at the intersection of culinary craftsmanship and design culture. Features in The World of Interiors and Esquire have further cemented its reputation among discerning consumers who value both aesthetics and environmental responsibility. The fresh capital will be deployed to scale production capacity, expand the product range, and accelerate the transition from limited-edition drops to consistent retail availability. The challenge for Allday Goods will be maintaining the artisan quality and brand mystique that fuelled its cult status whilst meeting the demands of a broader consumer base — a tension that many direct-to-consumer brands have struggled to navigate. The broader sustainable kitchenware market continues to attract both consumer interest and investor capital across Europe. As regulatory pressure on single-use plastics intensifies and consumers increasingly seek products that align with their environmental values, brands like Allday Goods that demonstrate genuine circularity in their manufacturing processes are well-positioned to capture meaningful market share. Summary Company: Allday GoodsHeadquarters: East London, United KingdomFounded: 2021Founder: Hugo WorsleyRound: SeedAmount: £765,000Lead Investor: FIGR VenturesOther Investors: Anotherway Ventures, Machroes Holdings, Tom GozneyUse of Funds: Scale production, expand product range, transition to mainstream retail availability

Subscribe to
our Newsletter!

Stay at the forefront with our curated guide to the best upcoming Tech events.