Podim 2026 Opens in Maribor on May 11: Europe’s Scaling Debate Comes to Slovenia
Europe produces more engineers than the United States. It leads globally in deep tech, sustainability, and industrial research. And yet, it keeps failing to turn that raw material into global technology giants. Podim 2026 — running May 11–13 in Maribor, Slovenia — is one of the few conferences that takes that failure seriously.
This isn’t a feel-good celebration of the ecosystem. It’s a working session.
What Podim is, and what it’s become
We covered Podim earlier this year when startup applications were still open. Now the lineup is set, and the scope of the event has expanded significantly.
For 2026, the organisers at Venture Factory have repositioned Podim from a regional flagship to something more structurally ambitious — a platform that connects Southeast and Central Europe directly with EU-level scaling instruments. New partnerships with Scale-X (UNIDO), the Future 500 initiative, and Munich’s Bits & Pretzels conference signal that the Western Balkans and Adriatic corridor are finally getting a seat at the table where cross-border growth gets negotiated.
The EU institutions on the agenda reflect that shift: the European Innovation Council, the European Commission’s Startup and Scaleup Taskforce, and EUSPA are all present — not as logos on a sponsor wall, but as active participants in the programming.
The structural problems on the agenda
The conference isn’t pretending the issues don’t exist. Fragmented capital markets, late-stage funding gaps, cross-border scaling barriers, talent retention — these are the topics that have dominated European innovation policy for years. What makes Podim different is the format: policymakers, investors, and operators in the same room, at the same time.
That’s rarer than it should be.
Who’s speaking
The speaker lineup mixes policy architects with founders who’ve already built global companies from the region:
- Stefan Drüssler — Member of the EIC Board and Managing Director of UnternehmerTUM, ranked by the Financial Times as Europe’s leading startup hub
- Anna Krzyżanowska — Advisor to the European Commission
- Robin Wauters — Co-creator of EU-INC
- Amir Salihefendić — Founder of Doist, which reached 50 million users without a single euro of venture capital
- Vlatko Matijević — CTO of Orqa FPV, one of Europe’s most serious drone technology companies
- Ioan Iacob — Founder of FlowX.AI, which has raised over $44 million to modernise banking infrastructure across Europe
- Stjepan Orešković — Founder of Bosqar Invest, a publicly listed company operating across 23 countries and the driving force behind the Future 500 initiative
Amir Salihefendić’s presence is worth flagging in particular. Doist — the company behind Todoist and Twist — is one of the most quietly significant cases in European tech: a bootstrapped, fully remote, globally distributed company that scaled to tens of millions of users without ever taking institutional capital. In a conference that spends a lot of time talking about VC-backed scaling, that counterpoint matters.
The investor side
More than 60 VC funds managing over €10 billion in capital have confirmed participation. The Investor Academy program is anchored by Enterprise Investors — with €2.5 billion deployed across 160+ companies and 140+ exits — and South Central Ventures, which manages over €300 million in assets.
Those 220 selected startups in the Podim catalogue will have structured access to this investor pool. If you applied and got in, the infrastructure for meaningful meetings is already in place.
The numbers
- 80+ speakers from Europe, the US, and beyond
- 60+ VC funds actively seeking investment opportunities
- 220 selected startups from CEE and the Adria region
- 3 days of programming across deep tech, fintech, and B2B/B2C tracks
Practical details
📅 May 11–13, 2026 📍 Maribor, Slovenia 🌐 podim.org
Organised by Venture Factory, in co-organisation with Silicon Gardens, the Slovenian Enterprise Fund, and the Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport.
Related coverage
- Final Call for Startups: Podim 2026 Applications Close on March 15
- TechChill Turns 15 With Its Biggest Bet Yet: A €1 Million Prize Pool
- Europe’s EIC Scaling Club Just Produced Its First Unicorn
Related articles: Final Call for Startups: Podim 2026 Applications Close on March 15 | DATANA by BioSistemika Wins PODIM 2026 Pitching Competition | This Slovenian Founder Is Tackling a €42B Market Healthcare Systems Can’t Solve — With a Sub-€1K Device
0 comments