Meet our generation’s most exceptional outliers—Slush 20U20
The youngest is 15. The oldest hasn't turned 20 yet. Slush reveals the first-ever Slush 20 Under 20: twenty extraordinary supertalents from over a dozen countries who are already building rockets, robots, satellites and AI companies backed by the world's leading investors.
Between them, the twenty have raised over €10 million in venture funding, been accepted into Y Combinator, worked at Lovable, OpenAI and NASA, and booked a satellite launch for 2027. Most of them did it before finishing high school.
Slush 20U20 is Slush's new program for the most exceptional outliers of our generation. Founders are prioritized, alongside young builders with clear entrepreneurial ambitions.
"We need to acknowledge that the world’s best talent is getting younger each year. Slush 20U20 is a testament to that. Every name on this list is doing something that sounds impossible for their age. As an event run by 20-odd-year-olds, we want to highlight the talent that has yet to have been discovered by the wider audience”, says Noora Saksa, CEO of Slush.
Lovable alumni, NASA prodigies and 15-year-old supertalents
The Lovable mafia has extended to under twenties
Two of the twenty don't only share the same first name, but have also already passed through Europe's fastest-growing startup: Elliot Norrevik (17, Sweden) joined Lovable at 16 before becoming the youngest European ever accepted into Y Combinator, while Elliot Lindberg (19, Finland/Sweden), built software with 450k+ users at 14, joined Lovable at 17 and is now building an agentic video editor.
Two of the S20U20s are quite literally shooting for the stars
Devesh Khilnani (18, US) joined NASA as one of the youngest engineers working on Artemis III before leaving at 17 to build Xyla, while Minh Nguyen (17, US) turned his research with NASA's OSDR Analysis Working Group into xOrbita, a satellite autopilot whose first launch is booked for 2027.
The best are backed by the best
Arlan Rakhmetzhanov (19, Kazakhstan) has raised €6.2M from the likes of CRV, LocalGlobe and BoxGroup for his YC-backed consumer AI startup Nozomio, while Nick Dobroshinsky (16, US) became the youngest Thiel Fellow to date after growing his AI equity research platform EveryTicker to 60,000 monthly users.
World’s best talent is only getting younger
At the age of 15, Kaon Krasniqi (Kosovo) and Amitav Krishna (Canada) have already achieved more than most double their age: Kaon ran an edtech startup before organising Kosovo's biggest AI hackathon, and Amitav joined the €100M+ scaleup 8090 Solutions before presenting his quantum research at IEEE's qCCL 2026 conference.
See the full list of 20U20 talents below.
One week, one city, 20 supertalents
Slush Week is the one week of the year when Europe's best founders and investors are in the same city. On Nov 17–19, the twenty program participants are flown to Helsinki, accommodated together and connected with top investors, Slush stage speakers and leading tech journalists through a curated mentoring program.
“Europe's first €1T company could be founded by a teenager. We want them to meet the people who can help them get there, here in Helsinki", says Noora Saksa, CEO of Slush.
Slush 20U20 is made possible with the support of Anthropic, Index Ventures & Sifted.
Slush 20U20 2026: the full list from youngest to oldest
- Amitav Krishna (15, Canada): Breakthrough research on quantum and water splitting
- Kaon Krasniqi (15, Kosovo): Founder of Kosovo's biggest AI hackathon
- Nick Dobroshinsky (16, US): Youngest Thiel Fellow
- David K. (17, Sweden): Ex-Strawberry, now building energy-based models
- Edvin Andersson (17, Sweden): Serial founder with €2M+ in generated revenue
- Elliot Norrevik (17, Sweden): Youngest European accepted to Y Combinator (YC S26)
- Minh Nguyen (17, US): Ex-NASA and youngest EWOR fellow
- Devesh Khilnani (18, US): Ex-NASA, building containers to space
- Divyansh Chauhan (18, India): Ex-Slashy (YC S25), now building a simulation dataset
- Fifi Siddiqui (18, UK): Serial founder and tech prodigy
- Maximilian Lippert (18, Brazil/Germany): Raised from Atlantic on his 18th birthday
- Noel Matero (18, Finland): Robotics and informatics prodigy
- Rahul Chandelkar (18, India): Youngest Magnificent Grants Fellow
- Arlan Rakhmetzhanov (19, Kazakhstan): YC (S25) founder with €6.2M raised
- Con Kirby (19, Ireland): Chess prodigy turned OpenAI FDE
- Elliot Lindberg (19, Sweden/Åland): Serial founder and ex-Lovable
- Julian Lewandowski (19, Ireland/Poland): Serial hackathon winner and founding engineer at Zymbly (YC W26)
- Liam Fuller (19, Ireland): AI founder with €1.4M raised
- Sofia Lipkevych (19, Ukraine): Robotics prodigy and hackathon founder
- Stepan Feduniak (19, Ukraine): Co-founder & CTO of InLoop Robotics (YC P26)
Slush 2026 takes place in Helsinki on Nov 18–19.
Find the S20U20 media kit here.