Web Summit: dates, who attends, and how founders get in
“Web Summit connects a new generation of founders with investors, journalists and technology leaders from around the world.”
Verified ·51 official sources·Organised by Connected Intelligence Limited, the primary organiser of Web Summit Lisbon; Web Summit Group is the wider event group.
- Next edition
- Nov 9–12, 2026 · Web Summit 2026 source
- Where
- MEO Arena and FIL, Lisbon, Portugal source
- Format
- in-person · 4 days (2025 schedule)
- Tickets
- €0 (Investor ticket, upon acceptance)–€24,950 (Chairperson) (2026). source
- Startup pass
- Apply to the Web Summit startup programme, which includes ALPHA for early-stage startups. The organiser selects applicants; successful applicants receive a package of event tickets and programme access rather than simply buying an ALPHA pass. source
- PITCH, brought to you by KPMG Private Enterprise
- The opportunity to be crowned the PITCH winner; no monetary amount is stated on the official Lisbon 2026 PITCH page. source
- Cadence
- Annual; the flagship Lisbon event takes place every November.
GeneralistAIClimateRoboticsFoundersInvestorsCorporatesPressPolicy & government
Next edition
| Dates | Nov 9–12, 2026 source |
|---|---|
| Edition | Web Summit 2026 |
| Venue | MEO Arena and FIL, Lisbon, Portugal source |
| Timezone | Europe/Lisbon |
| Tickets | websummit.com source |
Ticket tiers as published
| Tier | Price | Includes | Edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| General attendee source | €950 (2026); €772 excluding sales tax (2026). | Exhibition floor, speaker content, networking recommendations, curated Meetups, Night Summit, masterclasses, partner perks, schedule builder and searchable attendee list. | Web Summit Lisbon 2026 |
| VIP source | €1,950 (2026); €1,585 excluding sales tax (2026). | General attendee benefits plus evening receptions, meeting spaces, catered food and drinks, exhibition-floor lounges, VIP Lounge access and priority registration. | Web Summit Lisbon 2026 |
| Chairperson source | €24,950 (2026); €20,285 excluding sales tax (2026). | Chairperson benefits include the general and VIP benefits, fast-tracked entrance and Speaker Lounge access. | Web Summit Lisbon 2026 |
| Investor source | €0 per ticket (2026); free access upon acceptance. | General attendee benefits, startup discovery tools, Investor meeting area, Investor Masterclasses and curated content. | Web Summit Lisbon 2026 |
| Platinum Investor source | €1,950 per ticket (2026); €1,585 excluding sales tax (2026). | Investor benefits plus invite-only investor side events, Investor Lounge, fast track, access to Venture, a dedicated success manager and sign-up for investor activities. | Web Summit Lisbon 2026 |
| Group offer: 5–9 tickets (2026) source | €895 per ticket (2026); €728 excluding sales tax (2026); 10% group saving (2026). | General attendee ticket benefits; group purchase for 5–9 tickets (2026). | Web Summit Lisbon 2026 |
| Group offer: 10–14 tickets (2026) source | €846 per ticket (2026); €688 excluding sales tax (2026); 15% group saving (2026). | General attendee ticket benefits; group purchase for 10–14 tickets (2026). | Web Summit Lisbon 2026 |
| Group offer: 15–19 tickets (2026) source | €796 per ticket (2026); €647 excluding sales tax (2026); 20% group saving (2026). | General attendee ticket benefits; group purchase for 15–19 tickets (2026). Bespoke group packages are available by enquiry. | Web Summit Lisbon 2026 |
How founders get in
For the 2026 edition, selected startups receive three tickets and access to investor meetings, PITCH, masterclasses, Mentor Hours and other activities. The organiser says it selects companies for growth potential, uniqueness and innovative ideas. Web Summit 2025 took place in Lisbon from 2025-11-10 to 2025-11-13; the next announced Lisbon edition is 2026-11-09 to 2026-11-12. The cited organiser pages state no cancellation, postponement, city move or event-name change.
- For ordinary attendance, purchase a General attendee ticket; you do not need to be accepted into the startup programme. To attend as a participating startup, apply to the Web Summit 2026 startup programme at https://websummit.com/startups/.
- If selected, accept the startup package: participating startups receive three event tickets (2026) and access to startup activities, including investor-to-startup meetings, PITCH, startup masterclasses and Mentor Hours.
- Work with the startup success team to prepare, complete your startup profile and apply for eligible startup activities. PITCH has a separate application and additional eligibility criteria.
- Use the organiser’s investor-to-startup meeting programme: sessions are pre-scheduled, 15-minute meetings (2026 programme).
| Startup programme | Apply to the Web Summit startup programme, which includes ALPHA for early-stage startups. The organiser selects applicants; successful applicants receive a package of event tickets and programme access rather than simply buying an ALPHA pass. source |
|---|---|
| Eligibility | The organiser says startups are selected for growth potential, uniqueness and innovative ideas (2026). Its published ALPHA definition is pre-investment or under US$1 million in funding. No founding-date requirement or 2026 application deadline is stated on the cited application page. |
| Investor pass | Submit credentials through the investor application for accreditation. The free Investor ticket is available upon acceptance; the organiser also sells a Platinum Investor ticket. source |
| Investor eligibility | For investors actively investing in startups or venture funds; the organiser requires proof of recent investments and company affiliation. Its accreditation policy states a minimum of three direct startup investments in the previous 24 months, totalling at least $25,000 (2026 accreditation). |
| Application required | No, tickets are purchased |
PITCH, brought to you by KPMG Private Enterprise
| Prize | The opportunity to be crowned the PITCH winner; no monetary amount is stated on the official Lisbon 2026 PITCH page. source |
|---|---|
| Format | PITCH is a live, onstage startup competition. Applications are reviewed; the top 105 startups (2026) compete onstage, with an independent panel of investors and global partners judging the pitches. The organiser describes a competition progressing to a winner but does not provide a cash-prize amount for Lisbon 2026. |
| Eligibility | Open to ALPHA and BETA startups exhibiting at Web Summit that have raised less than €5 million and have not had a discernible change in business model in the previous three years (2026). |
Winners
- Granter (2025) — Top prize; Web Summit PITCH champion source
- Intuitivo (2024) — Web Summit PITCH winner source
- Inspira (2023) — Web Summit PITCH winner, Henrique Ferreira source
- Theneo (2022) — Web Summit PITCH winner, Ana Robakidze source
- Smartex (2021) — Web Summit PITCH winner source
- Lalibela (2020) — Web Summit PITCH winner source
- Nutrix (2019) — Web Summit PITCH winner, Maria Hahn source
- Wayve (2018) — Web Summit PITCH winner, Alex Kendall source
- Lifeina (2017) — Web Summit PITCH winner source
Judges
- Maxine Minter, General Partner at Co Ventures source
- Arnaud Bertrand, Author & Geopolitical Analyst at Me & Qi source
- Teresa Fiuza, CIO at Banco Português de Fomento source
- Stephan Morais, Managing General Partner at Indico Capital Partners source
- Sue Xu, Managing Partner at Amino Capital source
- Gloria Colgan, Global Product Head for Commercial Solutions at Visa source
- Joe Paluska, CMO at Commonwealth Fusion source
- Emily Fontaine, Global Head of Venture Capital at IBM source
- Alex Hanhan, Senior Tax Partner at KPMG LLP source
- Carolina De Oliveira, Partner at KPMG source
- Larry Li, Founder & Managing Partner at Amino Capital source
- Cristina Fonseca, Managing Partner at Indico Capital Partners source
- Cynthia Reseburg, Managing Partner at Initialized Capital source
- Conor Moore, Global Leader - Private Enterprise at KPMG source
Meeting investors there
Participating startups meet investors through pre-scheduled sessions. The organiser describes these meetings as connecting leading investors with promising startups in its programme. The Web Summit mobile app supports attendee connections; the organiser calls its matching software Summit Engine. source
| Investors attending | 1,857 investors (2025) source |
|---|---|
| Matchmaking | Web Summit mobile app; the organiser identifies Summit Engine as its proprietary matching software for relevant participant and company connections. source |
| Formats | Pre-scheduled, 15-minute investor-to-startup meetings (2026 programme). · Investor meeting area and startup-discovery tools. · Investor masterclasses and curated investor content. · Investor-specific meetups; Platinum Investor benefits also include invite-only investor side events and access to Venture. |
Investor firms the organiser lists (2026 announced edition (next); 2025 completed edition (published outcomes).)
QED InvestorsAmino CapitalInitialized CapitalFelicis VenturesAZ-VCHV CapitalOak HC/FT PartnersLakestarEverywhere VenturesPinegrove Venture PartnersNotion CapitalIndico Capital PartnersM13 VenturesBaillie Gifford
The full investor list is available to registered attendees; see the official investor page.
Before you go: the hub's cold email to VCs playbook covers the pre-event outreach that fills a meeting calendar, and Causo matches your stage and thesis to the funds in its database so you know who to ask for a meeting.
Who speaks (2026 announced edition (next); 2025 completed edition (published outcomes).)
- Richard Socher, Co-founder & CEO · Recursive & You.com
- Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy · European Commission
- Matthew Prince, Co-founder & CEO · Cloudflare
- Victor Gao, Chair Professor; Vice President, CCG; Chairman, China Energy Security Center · Center for China and Globalization (CCG)
- Michele Catasta, President & Head of AI · Replit
- Tao Zhang, Co-founder · Manus AI
- Danielle Perszyk, Director of Cognitive Science, AGI Lab · Amazon
- Mike Cannon-Brookes, Co-founder & CEO · Atlassian
- Philippe Botteri, Partner · Accel
- Jackie Jantos, CEO · Hinge
- Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid Footballer & Investor · NXTPLAY Capital
- Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief · The Economist
- Maria Sharapova, Tennis Player · Maria Sharapova
- Markus Villig, Founder & CEO · Bolt
- Ling Ge, Chief Investment and Strategy Officer (EMEA) · Tencent
- David Jones, Founder · DMA Design (now Rockstar North)
- Zixuan Li, CPO · Zhipu AI
- Diana Layfield, Group CEO · Monzo
- Larry Li, Founder & Managing Partner · Amino Capital
- Rene Haas, CEO · Arm Ltd.
Full lineup: official speakers page.
Notable past speakers
- Etosha Cave, Co-founder · Twelve (2025)
- Maria Sharapova, Tennis Legend · Maria Sharapova (2025)
- Laurent Mekies, Team Principal & CEO · Oracle Red Bull Racing (2025)
- Louise McEwen, CMO · McLaren Racing (2025)
- Caroline Buckland, Group Director of Growth Marketing · Red Bull Racing (2025)
Sponsors and partners
Global partner (no sponsor tier stated) 20
Media partners: Bloomberg, Inc
Government partners: Startup Portugal
Full list: official partners page.
Startups there
2,725 startups exhibited (2025). The current 2026 startup directory is published, but no startup-only total was stated on the reviewed organiser pages. · official startup directory
Alumni the organiser highlights
- Granter (2025) — Web Summit PITCH winner; listed in the organiser's PITCH Hall of Fame. source
- Intuitivo (2024) — Web Summit PITCH winner; listed in the organiser's PITCH Hall of Fame. source
- Inspira (2023) — Web Summit PITCH winner; listed in the organiser's PITCH Hall of Fame. source
- Wayve (2018) — Web Summit PITCH winner; listed in the organiser's PITCH Hall of Fame. source
Programme
| Tracks | AI Summit · Commerce Summit · Creative Summit · Cybersecurity Summit · MoneyConf · Marketing Summit · Future of Work Summit · Corporate Innovation Summit · Developer Summit · Growth Summit · Energy Summit · New Media Summit · Venture Summit · SaaS Summit · Policy Summit · Health Summit · Sport Summit · Web Summit’s speaker-support information described the 2025 edition as having 20 content tracks (2025); that page does not enumerate all their names. source |
|---|---|
| Side events | The organiser’s official evening programme is Night Summit, described as networking and social events for attendees. The 2026 schedule also lists curated Meetups, including a first-time startup founders meetup and a founders-and-CEOs meetup. |
| Awards | PITCH, brought to you by KPMG Private Enterprise, is the published startup competition for the 2026 edition. Granter won the top prize at Web Summit 2025; VarsityScape and SegmentStream were runners-up (2025). No cash value for the Lisbon PITCH prize is stated on the official 2026 competition page. |
| Call for speakers | The organiser has an online “Apply to speak” page for Web Summit 2026. No speaker-submission deadline or detailed CFP criteria are stated on the cited page. source |
| Volunteering | The Web Summit 2026 volunteer page advertises applying to volunteer in return for a free event ticket. The organiser says selection is not guaranteed and volunteers are not compensated for travel or accommodation. The application route is linked from https://websummit.com/volunteers/. source |
| Official app | Web Summit |
| Hashtag | #WebSummit |
Past editions, as published
| Edition | Dates | Attendees | Investors | Startups | Recap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 · The organiser described 2025 as its tenth year in Lisbon. Together with its account that Web Summit began in Dublin, this indicates a Dublin-to-Lisbon move by 2016; 2016 is inferred from the anniversary wording. source | Nov 10–13, 2025 | 71,386 attendees (2025) | 1,857 investors from 86 countries (2025) | 2,725 startups from 108 countries (2025); 40% women-founded startups (2025); PITCH winner: Granter (2025); runners-up: VarsityScape and SegmentStream (2025) | recap |
| 2024 source | Nov 11–14, 2024 | 71,528 attendees (2024) | 1,066 investors (2024) | 3,050 exhibiting companies (2024); 44.5% women-founded startups (2024); nearly 200 startups from the 2024 Startup Programme raised $715.5 million post-event (reported 2025) | recap · report · video · photos |
| 2023 source | Nov 13–16, 2023 | 70,236 attendees (2023) | 906 investors (2023) | 2,608 startups from 93 countries (2023) | recap · report |
| 2022 source | — | 71,033 attendees (2022) | 1,081 investors from 60 countries (2022) | 2,296 startups; 342 partners (2022) | recap · report |
| 2021 source | — | — | — | — | |
| 2018 source | — | — | — | — | |
| 2016 · Lisbon year inferred from the organiser’s statement that 2025 marked its tenth year in Lisbon; the cited material identifies Dublin as the conference’s origin. source | — | — | — | — | |
| 2009 · Dublin · The organiser describes this as the conference’s founding edition in October 2009. source | — | 150-person conference (2009) | — | — |
Cities: Dublin, Ireland (origin; founded there in 2009); Lisbon, Portugal (2025 was described by the organiser as the event’s tenth year in Lisbon, implying the move began in 2016)
Who attends
| Breakdown | The official 2025 figures give attendee roles and totals but no percentage breakdown of attendees (2025). source |
|---|---|
| Geography | Attendees from 157 countries; startups from 108 countries; investors from 86 countries (2025). source |
| Roles | Founders, Investors, Corporates, Press, Policy & government |
Official links and socials
Travel & apps
Prepare for it
- How to cold email VCs — book the meetings before you land.
- The 12-slide seed deck — what to have ready when a partner says "send me the deck".
- Pitch Deck Roaster — a slide-by-slide pass before you submit to PITCH, brought to you by KPMG Private Enterprise.
- Accelerator deadlines — the application windows that open around the event.
Sources
Every fact above was read from one of these official pages on Oct 7, 2026:
- about.websummit.com
- apps.apple.com/app/id6748312475
- bsky.app/profile/websummit.bsky.social
- play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.summitengine.attendee
- sites.google.com/websummit.com/ws22-partnerhub/general-information
- support.websummit.com/hc/en-us/articles/34079863878557-Your-visa-confirmation-letter
- websummit.bnetwork.com/Index.aspx
- websummit.com
- websummit.com/anti-harassment-policy
- websummit.com/app
- websummit.com/blog/news
- websummit.com/blog/news/ai-funding-assistant-granter-wins-web-summit-2025-pitch
- websummit.com/blog/news/record-investors-at-web-summit-2025-bucking-industry-trends
- websummit.com/blog/news/web-summit-2023-numbers
- websummit.com/blog/startups-investors/inspira-brazil-pitch
- websummit.com/blog/startups-investors/pitch-competition-wayve-funding-investment
- websummit.com/blog/startups-investors/porto-edutech-startup-intuitivo-wins-web-summit-pitch-competition
- websummit.com/blog/startups-investors/web-summit-x-crunchbase-funding-report-2025-ai-takes-top-spot-as-startups-raise-715-5m-after-web-summit
- websummit.com/blog/web-summit/web-summit-2024-hosts-sold-out-event-with-record-breaking-71528-attendees
- websummit.com/essentials
- websummit.com/essentials/the-city-essentials
- websummit.com/essentials/venue-essentials
- websummit.com/featured-attendees-lisbon2025
- websummit.com/investors
- websummit.com/media-kit
- websummit.com/media
- websummit.com/media/press-releases
- websummit.com/newsletter-signup
- websummit.com/partners/event-partners
- websummit.com/speaker-application
- websummit.com/speakers
- websummit.com/speakers/filters/eyJpbmR1c3RyeSI6IlNwb3J0cyAmIGZpdG5lc3MifQ==
- websummit.com/startups
- websummit.com/startups/investor-to-startup-meetings
- websummit.com/startups/pitch
- websummit.com/startups/pitch-retrospective
- websummit.com/tickets
- websummit.com/tickets/group-offers
- websummit.com/tickets/investors
- websummit.com/volunteers
- websummit.com/web-summit-2026
- websummit.com/whos-coming-to-web-summit-backup/investors-going
- websummit.com/wp-media/2024/09/Web-Summit-2023-Numbers.pdf
- websummit.com/wp-media/2024/10/Web-Summit-2022-Numbers-Press-Release.pdf
- facebook.com/WebSummitHQ
- flickr.com/photos/websummit/albums
- instagram.com/websummit
- linkedin.com/company/web-summit
- tiktok.com/@websummit
- youtube.com/@websummit
- x.com/WebSummit
Web Summit: frequently asked
When is Web Summit 2026?
Web Summit 2026 runs Nov 9–12, 2026 at MEO Arena and FIL, Lisbon, according to the organiser's published dates.
How much does Web Summit cost?
Published ticket prices run €0 (Investor ticket, upon acceptance)–€24,950 (Chairperson) (2026).. Startups: Apply to the Web Summit startup programme, which includes ALPHA for early-stage startups. The organiser selects applicants; successful applicants receive a package of event tickets and programme access rather than simply buying an ALPHA pass..
How do startups get into Web Summit?
Apply to the Web Summit startup programme, which includes ALPHA for early-stage startups. The organiser selects applicants; successful applicants receive a package of event tickets and programme access rather than simply buying an ALPHA pass. Eligibility as published: The organiser says startups are selected for growth potential, uniqueness and innovative ideas (2026). Its published ALPHA definition is pre-investment or under US$1 million in funding. No founding-date requirement or 2026 application deadline is stated on the cited application page.
How many investors attend Web Summit?
The organiser reports 1,857 investors investors for the 2025 edition. Participating startups meet investors through pre-scheduled sessions. The organiser describes these meetings as connecting leading investors with promising startups in its programme. The Web Summit mobile app supports attendee connections; the organiser calls its matching software Summit Engine.
What is PITCH, brought to you by KPMG Private Enterprise?
Web Summit's pitch competition. Prize as published: The opportunity to be crowned the PITCH winner; no monetary amount is stated on the official Lisbon 2026 PITCH page.. Eligibility: Open to ALPHA and BETA startups exhibiting at Web Summit that have raised less than €5 million and have not had a discernible change in business model in the previous three years (2026).
How big is Web Summit?
71,386 attendees attendees (2025), 2,725 exhibiting startups startups, from 157 countries represented among attendees countries, per the organiser.