Web Summit Qatar: dates, who attends, and how founders get in
“Web Summit Qatar helps to connect a new generation of founders in the Middle East to investors, journalists and more around the world.”
- Next edition
- Jan 31 – Feb 3, 2027 · Web Summit Qatar 2027 source
- Where
- Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC), Doha, Qatar source
- Format
- in-person · 4 days (2026 edition)
- Tickets
- QR 0–QR 100,000 (2027; the QR 0 Investor ticket requires acceptance). For founders buying a general-attendee ticket, the official flash-sale page lists QR 997.50, discounted from QR1,995 (2027). A separate official ticket listing also displays QR1,595 and QR3,195 (2027). source
- Startup pass
- Apply to the Web Summit Qatar startup programme; selected companies are assigned a category. The published categories are ALPHA (pre-investment or under US$1 million in funding), BETA (successfully launched; may have participated in earlier Web Summit programmes) and GROWTH (considerable growth and global expansion). Selection is by the Web Summit team. source
- PITCH, sponsored by Jusour
- The organiser describes the PITCH trophy and the opportunity for global media attention and investor credibility; no cash-prize amount is published. source
- Cadence
- Annual, in Doha since 2024; held in February in 2024, 2025 and 2026, and scheduled for late January to early February in 2027.
GeneralistAIFintechHealth & biotechClimateGamingPre-seedSeedFoundersInvestorsCorporatesPressPolicy & government
Next edition
| Dates | Jan 31 – Feb 3, 2027 source |
|---|---|
| Edition | Web Summit Qatar 2027 |
| Venue | Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC), Doha, Qatar source |
| Tickets | qatar.websummit.com source |
Ticket tiers as published
| Tier | Price | Includes | Edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| General attendee source | QR 997.50 (2027 flash-sale price; the page also lists QR1,995 before discount). A separate official attendee-ticket listing displays QR1,595 and QR3,195 (2027). | Exhibition floor; speaker content; tailored networking recommendations; curated Meetups; Night Summit; masterclasses; downloadable contacts; partner perks; schedule builder and attendee list. | 2027 |
| VIP source | QR12,995 (2027). | General-attendee benefits, plus VIP lounge, catered food and drinks, access to exhibition-floor lounges and priority registration. | 2027 |
| Chairperson source | QR100,000 (2027). | General-attendee and VIP benefits, plus fast-tracked entrance, evening receptions, meeting spaces and Speaker Lounge. | 2027 |
| Investor source | QR 0 (2027; free access upon acceptance). | General-attendee benefits, startup discovery tools, access to the Investor meeting area, Investor Masterclasses and curated content. | 2027 |
| Investor Platinum source | QR12,995 (2027). | Investor benefits, plus an exclusive Investor Lounge, invite-only investor side events, fast track, dedicated success manager and exclusive sign-up to investor activities. | 2027 |
| Group offer source | Group price varies; the organiser advertises savings of up to 40% for five or more tickets (2027). | Each group ticket provides the same access as a general-attendee ticket. | 2027 |
How founders get in
The organiser describes a curated startup community selected for potential, uniqueness and innovative ideas. Selected startups receive event tickets and access to investor-to-startup meetings, PITCH, startup masterclasses, Mentor Hours and other event activities.
- For Web Summit Qatar 2027, submit the startup-programme application through the organiser’s Qatar startups page. Applications are assessed by the Web Summit team; selected startups are assigned a programme category.
- If selected, use the startup ticket package and prepare with the startup success team. The programme provides access to investor-to-startup meetings, PITCH, startup masterclasses, Mentor Hours and other activities.
- Create a startup profile and use the Web Summit Qatar app to prepare your schedule and connect with attendees. Apply for startup activations such as PITCH, 40 Words, Mentor Hours, startup masterclasses and Startup Showcase, as applicable.
- If you are not applying through the startup programme, a founder can attend as a general attendee by purchasing a ticket; the organiser’s general ticket page offers direct booking.
| Startup programme | Apply to the Web Summit Qatar startup programme; selected companies are assigned a category. The published categories are ALPHA (pre-investment or under US$1 million in funding), BETA (successfully launched; may have participated in earlier Web Summit programmes) and GROWTH (considerable growth and global expansion). Selection is by the Web Summit team. source |
|---|---|
| Includes | The organiser says selected startups receive event tickets and access for their team to investor-to-startup meetings, PITCH, startup masterclasses, Mentor Hours and other activities. Qatar’s startup-journey page also lists 40 Words and Startup Showcase as startup activations. |
| Eligibility | Applicants are startups selected by Web Summit for growth potential, uniqueness and innovative ideas. The organiser’s published category guidance describes ALPHA, BETA and GROWTH as above; no Qatar-specific founding-date requirement is stated. |
| Investor pass | Apply for the Investor ticket through the Qatar investor page and obtain acceptance. Alternatively, the Platinum Investor ticket is available to purchase. source |
| Investor eligibility | Investor accreditation is for active investors; applicants must provide proof of recent investments and company affiliation. The organiser’s Qatar support page links to its investor-accreditation policy. |
| Press | For the completed 2026 edition, Qatar media accreditation was fully subscribed and applications had closed. The official support page said 2027 applications were open. Apply through the Qatar media page; accreditation is for journalists working on the editorial side of legitimate and suitable media outlets, subject to review and approval. |
| Application required | No, tickets are purchased |
PITCH, sponsored by Jusour
| Prize | The organiser describes the PITCH trophy and the opportunity for global media attention and investor credibility; no cash-prize amount is published. source |
|---|---|
| Eligibility | The Qatar startup-journey page says startups may apply for PITCH; the PITCH page routes applicants to the startup-programme application. No more specific Qatar eligibility criteria are stated on those pages. |
Winners
- Breshna (2024) — PITCH trophy, Mariam Nusrat source
- Metalchemy (2025) — PITCH trophy, Federico Trotta source
- Plantaform (2026), Alberto Aguilar source
Judges
- Yalda Aoukar, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Bracket Capital source
- Eric Martineau Fortin, Founder & Managing Partner at White Star Capital source
- Bedy Yang, Managing Partner at 500 Global source
- Amin Matni, Advisor to CEO - Investor & Entrepreneur residencies PM at Jusour source
Meeting investors there
The organiser presents founder-investor meetings as part of its selected startup programme and schedules investor-to-startup activity, meetups and Mentor Hours. The Web Summit Qatar app’s Discovery feature lets attendees find profiles, message people and plan meetings; no separate Qatar matchmaking-app name is published. source
| Investors attending | 931 investors (2026) source |
|---|---|
| Matchmaking | Web Summit Qatar app source |
| Formats | Investor-to-startup meetings. · Investor-specific meetups and Investor Masterclasses. · Mentor Hours and the New Venture Summit. · Investor Lounge and Investor Lounge Happy Hour; the lounge and invite-only investor side events are listed as Platinum Investor benefits. · PITCH judging and PITCH hosting; startup showcases and startup masterclasses also appear in the investor programme schedule. |
Investor firms the organiser lists (Latest completed: Web Summit Qatar 2026 (2026-02-01 to 2026-02-04); next announced: Web Summit Qatar 2027 (2027-01-31 to 2027-02-03).)
Amino CapitalGreycroft500 GlobalPeak XVInitialized CapitalGobi PartnersPlus VCBECO CapitalQIA
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 (Latest completed: Web Summit Qatar 2026 (2026-02-01 to 2026-02-04); next announced: Web Summit Qatar 2027 (2027-01-31 to 2027-02-03).)
- His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs · Government of Qatar
- Eduardo Saverin, Co-founder · B Capital & Facebook
- Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, Chairperson · Qatar Foundation
- Issam Hijazi, Founder & CEO · Upscrolled
- Larry Li, Founder & Managing Partner · Amino Capital
- Mati Staniszewski, Co-Founder · Elevenlabs
- Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson · Qatar Museums
- Cliff Obrecht, Co-founder & COO · Canva
- Tom Hale, CEO · Oura
- Cristobal Valenzuela, Founder & CEO · Runway
- Sheikh Ali Alwaleed Al-Thani, CEO · Invest Qatar
- Steven Bartlett, Entrepreneur & Podcaster · Diary of a CEO
- Logan Paul, Creator, Investor, Entrepreneur & Pro Wrestler · Logan Paul
- Questlove, Musician and Podcast Host · The Roots
- Qasar Younis, Co-founder & CEO · Applied Intuition
- Prajakta Koli, Creator, Actor & Author · Prajakta Koli
- Sheikh Nasser bin Faisal bin Khalifa Al Thani, Director General · Al Jazeera Media Network
- Chris Williamson, Host of the Modern Wisdom podcast · iHeart
- William Sargent, Chairman · Framestore
- Swizz Beatz, Music Producer & Entrepreneur · Swizz Beatz
- Abir El Saghir, Creator, Internet Personality & Chef · abir.sag
- Yanis Varoufakis, Economist & Former Greek Finance Minister · Yanis Varoufakis
Full lineup: official speakers page.
Notable past speakers
- Alexandr Wang, Founder · Scale AI (2025)
- Will Ahmed, Founder & CEO · Whoop (2024)
- Amjad Masad, Co-founder & CEO · Replit (2025)
- Trevor Noah, Author & Presenter · Trevor Noah (2024)
Sponsors and partners
Diamond 3
QNB GroupQICDukhan Bank
PITCH 1
Jusour
Global partner 4
IBMTikTokMicrosoftAmazon
Media partners: Al Jazeera, Euronews, Forbes, CNBC, Axios, Dow Jones
Government partners: Startup Qatar, Qatar Investment Authority, QRDI Council, Qatar Development Bank, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Qatar)
Full list: official partners page.
Startups there
1,637 exhibiting startups (2026) · official startup directory
Alumni the organiser highlights
- Breshna (2024) — PITCH winner; the organiser identifies Mariam Nusrat as its founder and CEO. source
- Metalchemy (2025) — Web Summit Qatar 2025 PITCH winner. source
- Plantaform (2026) — Web Summit Qatar 2026 PITCH winner. source
Programme
| Tracks | AI Summit (2026). · Sports Summit (2026). · Marketing Summit (2026). · Health Summit (2026). · New Venture Summit (2026). · New Energy Summit (2026). · Government Summit (2026). · AI Summit (2027). · Marketing Summit (2027). · Corporate Innovation Summit (2027). · New Media Summit (2027). · Growth Summit (2027). · Energy Summit (2027). · Venture Summit (2027). · Moneyconf (2027). · Policy Summit (2027). · Startup University (2027). · Health Summit (2027). · Sport Summit (2027). source |
|---|---|
| Side events | For Web Summit Qatar 2026, the official schedule included Night Summit, with evening programming such as a Questlove performance, Padel Pitching, mini golf and meetups. The organiser describes Night Summit as its official after-hours gathering. The 2027 schedule page says that edition’s schedule will be announced later; no 2027 side-event programme is listed there. |
| Awards | The published startup competition is PITCH, sponsored by Jusour. For the completed 2026 edition, the organiser announced Plantaform as winner. The official pages describe a PITCH trophy and publicity, but do not publish a cash-prize amount. |
| Hackathon | No Web Summit Qatar hackathon is identified in the official Qatar startup-journey activations or the 2026 schedule pages examined. |
| Volunteering | For Web Summit Qatar 2027, register interest through the volunteer page; the organiser advertises a free event ticket and benefits including experience, meeting people and seeing the event behind the scenes. No further selection criteria are stated on the page examined. source |
| Official app | Web Summit Qatar |
| Hashtag | #WebSummitQatar |
Past editions, as published
| Edition | Dates | Attendees | Investors | Startups | Recap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 source | Feb 1–4, 2026 | 30,274 participants (2026) | 931 investors (2026) | 1,637 startups (2026); PITCH winner Plantaform (2026); 38% of startups had a female founder (2026) | recap · video · photos |
| 2025 source | Feb 23–26, 2025 | 25,747 attendees (2025) | 723 investors (2025) | 1,520 startups (2025); 228 Qatari startups (2025); PITCH winner Metalchemy (2025) | recap · report |
| 2024 source | Feb 26–29, 2024 | 15,453 attendees (2024) | 401 investors from 46 countries (2024) | 1,043 startups (2024); 100 from Qatar (2024); 200 from Africa (2024); PITCH winner Breshna (2024) | recap · report |
Cities: Doha (2024); Doha (2025); Doha (2026); Doha (2027 announced)
Who attends
| Geography | Attendees from 127 countries (2026) source |
|---|---|
| Roles | Founders, Investors, Corporates, Press, Policy & government |
| Stages | Pre-seed, Seed |
Official links and socials
Travel & apps
In the press
- Web Summit Qatar welcomes over 15,000 participants from 118 countries to Doha — Qatar Tribune (2024)
- QFC signs Memoranda of Understanding during the Web Summit Qatar 2024 — Zawya (2024)
- QIA to invest over $1 billion in venture capital funds — Reuters (2024)
- Startup Qatar’ sees strong interest from attendees at Web Summit Qatar — Gulf Times (2024)
- Qatar hosts first Web Summit in the Middle East — CNN (2024)
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, sponsored by Jusour.
- 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:
- linkedin.com/company/web-summit
- linktr.ee/websummit.com
- qatar.websummit.com
- qatar.websummit.com/anti-harassment-policy
- qatar.websummit.com/app
- qatar.websummit.com/blog
- qatar.websummit.com/blog/news/global-capital-gathers-in-doha-as-web-summit-qatar-hits-record-scale
- qatar.websummit.com/blog/news/global-capital-gathers-in-doha-as-web-summit-qatar-hits-record-scale; https://www.gco.gov.qa/en/media-centre/major-events/web-summit-qatar/2026-edition
- qatar.websummit.com/blog/news/nanotech-startup-metalchemy-wins-web-summit-qatar-pitch-competition-to-solve-food-waste-crisis
- qatar.websummit.com/blog/news/plantaform-startup-growing-plants-without-soil-wins-pitch
- qatar.websummit.com/blog/news/plantaform-startup-growing-plants-without-soil-wins-pitch
- qatar.websummit.com/blog/news/sold-out-web-summit-qatar-welcomes-record-25747-to-the-middle-easts-biggest-startup-event
- qatar.websummit.com/blog/press-releases/pitch-jusour-winner-breshna-gaming-development
- qatar.websummit.com/discover-doha
- qatar.websummit.com/essentials/the-city
- qatar.websummit.com/essentials/tickets
- qatar.websummit.com/essentials/venue
- qatar.websummit.com/flash-sale-live
- qatar.websummit.com/investors
- qatar.websummit.com/investors
- qatar.websummit.com/media
- qatar.websummit.com/media-qat24/media-kit
- qatar.websummit.com/media/press-releases
- qatar.websummit.com/media/press-releases
- qatar.websummit.com/newsletter
- qatar.websummit.com/partners
- qatar.websummit.com/schedule
- qatar.websummit.com/sessions/qat26/1f01e307-6844-449e-8d00-f5a0dda9cd93/pitch-final
- qatar.websummit.com/speakers
- qatar.websummit.com/speakers/page/1
- qatar.websummit.com/speakers/page/2
- qatar.websummit.com/speakers/page/3
- qatar.websummit.com/speakers/page/4
- qatar.websummit.com/startups
- qatar.websummit.com/startups/pitch
- qatar.websummit.com/startups/pitch
- qatar.websummit.com/tickets/attendees
- qatar.websummit.com/tickets/group-offers
- qatar.websummit.com/tickets/investors
- qatar.websummit.com/volunteers
- support-qatar.websummit.com/hc/en-us/sections/35085521782173-FAQ
- facebook.com/websummitqatar?locale=ko_KR
- flickr.com/photos/websummitqatar/albums
- gco.gov.qa/en/media-centre/major-events/web-summit-qatar/2024-edition
- gco.gov.qa/en/media-centre/major-events/web-summit-qatar/2025-edition
- gco.gov.qa/en/media-centre/major-events/web-summit-qatar/2026-edition
- gco.gov.qa/en/media-centre/major-events/web-summit-qatar/overview
- gco.gov.qa/en/media-centre/top-news/qatar-hosts-annual-strategic-meeting-in-doha-ahead-of-web-summit-qatar-2027
- gco.gov.qa/en/media-centre/top-news/web-summit-qatar-2025-delivers-major-economic-gains
- gco.gov.qa/en/media-centre/top-news/web-summit-qatar-2026-concludes-an-exceptional-third-edition
- gco.gov.qa/en/media-centre/top-news/web-summit-qatars-second-edition-concludes-with-record-participation
- gco.gov.qa/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ENG-WSQ-Executive-Report.pdf
- instagram.com/websummit?hl=en
- threads.com/@websummit
- youtube.com/@websummit
- x.com/WebSummit?lang=en
Web Summit Qatar: frequently asked
When is Web Summit Qatar 2027?
Web Summit Qatar 2027 runs Jan 31 – Feb 3, 2027 at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC), Doha, according to the organiser's published dates.
How much does Web Summit Qatar cost?
Published ticket prices run QR 0–QR 100,000 (2027; the QR 0 Investor ticket requires acceptance). For founders buying a general-attendee ticket, the official flash-sale page lists QR 997.50, discounted from QR1,995 (2027). A separate official ticket listing also displays QR1,595 and QR3,195 (2027).. Startups: Apply to the Web Summit Qatar startup programme; selected companies are assigned a category. The published categories are ALPHA (pre-investment or under US$1 million in funding), BETA (successfully launched; may have participated in earlier Web Summit programmes) and GROWTH (considerable growth and global expansion). Selection is by the Web Summit team..
How do startups get into Web Summit Qatar?
Apply to the Web Summit Qatar startup programme; selected companies are assigned a category. The published categories are ALPHA (pre-investment or under US$1 million in funding), BETA (successfully launched; may have participated in earlier Web Summit programmes) and GROWTH (considerable growth and global expansion). Selection is by the Web Summit team. Eligibility as published: Applicants are startups selected by Web Summit for growth potential, uniqueness and innovative ideas. The organiser’s published category guidance describes ALPHA, BETA and GROWTH as above; no Qatar-specific founding-date requirement is stated.
How many investors attend Web Summit Qatar?
The organiser reports 931 investors investors for the 2026 edition. The organiser presents founder-investor meetings as part of its selected startup programme and schedules investor-to-startup activity, meetups and Mentor Hours. The Web Summit Qatar app’s Discovery feature lets attendees find profiles, message people and plan meetings; no separate Qatar matchmaking-app name is published.
What is PITCH, sponsored by Jusour?
Web Summit Qatar's pitch competition. Prize as published: The organiser describes the PITCH trophy and the opportunity for global media attention and investor credibility; no cash-prize amount is published.. Eligibility: The Qatar startup-journey page says startups may apply for PITCH; the PITCH page routes applicants to the startup-programme application. No more specific Qatar eligibility criteria are stated on those pages.
How big is Web Summit Qatar?
30,274 attendees attendees (2026), 1,637 startups startups, from 127 countries countries, per the organiser.