Slush’D Events from the Second Half of 2024

With the second half of the Slush’D 2024 season now behind us, it’s time to look back at the highlights.

Missed the action? Read this. 

The H2 was kicked off with our second Slush’D event in India, but this time in Bangalore.

Bangalore Slush’D took place in early August and spanned over three days with multiple side events happening around the city before the main event day. Our favourites? A pickleball tournament between founders, investors and volunteers, and a masterclass on investment readiness. The main event day gathered over 600 attendees to a local large pub.

The event is organized by Headstart—a volunteer led organization striving to enable the enablers of the startup ecosystems across India.

The amazing group of volunteers making the event run smoothly

For the second time, Enschede Slush’D brought summer to a close and people back to business on the last week of August.

The event gathered over 500 visitors, including more than 250 startup founders, 57 speakers, 4 stages, and even more confetti. Pitching competition was one of the highlights and the first prize of 10,000 € was taken home by the local university’s spin-off startup, FETCH. Two runner-ups of the pitching competition Thoughtful-Oasis and Phos4nova both won tickets to attend Slush in Helsinki.

Some other highlights: hot tubs to have meetings in and karaoke to end the day with.

FETCH helps doctors monitor cancer by detecting tumor cells.

Located in the heart of the Dolomites it was almost natural that Bolzano Slush’D would start off with a hike to admire the stunning sceneries around. And so it did—founders and investors spent the pre-event day hiking, networking and talking about founder well-being.

The main event gathered over 850 attendees around the Northern Italy to scale the Italian startup ecosystem into new heights.

SLY won the Alpine Startup Competition and got tickets to take part in Slush in Helsinki. At Slush, the company also made it to the Top 20 of startups in the Slush 100 Startup Competition and pitched at the Startup Stage in front of 13,000 attendees.

The stunning views during the hike

Cornwall Slush’D took the comfiness of their event to another level by hosting their event in a local cinema in Newquay. What a luxurious experience to enjoy all the stage talks from the softest seats.

The event took place for the second time and  it’s organized by Tech Cornwall, non-profit organization backing Cornwall’s tech scene. The small but strong local ecosystem gathered together to enjoy talks, pitches, demos, good conversations and even better Cornish pasties.

Nine local startups pitched on stage in their startup competition and five startups more demoed their products and got live feedback. Huge congrats to Output Industries who took home the win of the pitching competition and joined us to Slush 2024.

Cinema also guarantees everyone a good view to the stage

A week after we moved further north in England to Liverpool. Continuing from their last year’s edition the aim of Liverpool Slush’D was to educate and connect local founders and show the Northwest of England as an attractive place to have a startup as well.

The event brought together over 400 individuals from the local ecosystem. Valuable advice was shared on stage by industry giants like Fredrik Hjelm—the founder and CEO of Voi and finnish long-drinks made the afterparty extra slushy.

The North’s biggest startup party

Zagreb Slush’D was back in town this October and this time with twice the amount of attendees compared to first edition of the event. The event started off with a casual gathering of founders, investors and other attendees the day prior to the event at Bornfight’s office. Bornfight is organizing the event together with Huki.

The agenda of the event was spread over to two stages: Founders Garage and Vision Stage. First was meant for local founders and pitches whereas the second showcased international and local success stories for inspiration for many future founders in the room. Arkensight impressed the pitching competition jury and a trip to Finland to attend Slush.

The happy winners

Heilbronn Slush’D is the first Slush’D event to be organized for the third time—and they did not let the ecosystem down this year either. Two days prior to the event were dedicated for multiple side events around the city.

The dome-style main stage is truly an eye-catcher and mesmerised the attendees together with the impressive line-up of speakers. Heilbronn Slush’D did not spare on prizes as 7 local startups who pitched on stage won in seven different categories and competitions of the event.

Something surprising? The organizers brought two barbers to the venue and you were able to get your hair cut while having a meeting. Talk about multitasking.

The event area and the dome

Slush’D made its way to Albania for the first time for Tirana Slush’D. The goal was to offer an opportunity for local startups to connect with investors, mentors, and potential partners both locally and internationally. 

The second aim of the event was to inspire the next generation of Albanian entrepreneurs by providing access to valuable resources, knowledge, and networks. Therefore it was thrilling to see many students, volunteers and other potential future founders in the event. 

One of the highlight for many was to see the local founders pitching on stage. Bliss—startup focusing on aiding mental health issues walked home with the first prize of attending Slush in Helsinki the following month.

The top 3 of Tirana Slush’D pitching competition

Ghent Slush’D was all about bringing together all the regions and startup communities around Belgium. In practice that meant gathering up to 1000 startup enthusiasts from volunteers to founders and investors—from Flanders to Wallonia to Brussels.

Main stage lineup combined experience of the most successful founders, operators and investors in the Belgian and international startup ecosystem. Founder stage was full of pitches, both from startups and from investors as well in reverse pitching session. Startup competed in three different tracks of their pitching competition: Students & PhD, Hardware & Health, and Software & AI. And in that order, the winners were: NOX Energy, OTIV and Donna.

Main Stage at the Wintercircus of Ghent

The wait for the Slush’D events of 2025 won’t be a long one, since Algiers Slush’D will kick off the year already on Jan 23. And from then on it’s business as usual and Slush’D events will be happening almost on a monthly basis.

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