Startups in the spotlight

On 8 April 2025, the Policy Learning Platform will host a webinar on festivals and pitching events to increase the attractiveness of local startup ecosystems for investors.

Besides providing funding to early-stage businesses in different ways, policymakers also aim to promote a stronger investment culture to durably increase the amount of private capital invested in early-stage technology-based businesses. This is often done through awareness-raising and promotional activities such as startup festivals, pitching events, and award competitions.

Such initiatives play a critical role in promoting and improving venture capital and equity investment in technology-based startups. These events create vibrant ecosystems bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, corporate partners, and other stakeholders to foster innovation, collaboration, and funding opportunities.

The webinar aims to explore the benefits of startup fairs and similar initiatives with respect to the development of regional startup communities and the leverage of private investment.

What you can expect

The following good practices from Interreg Europe projects will be presented:

• Prep4Seed Investor-Readiness Programme for High-growth Start-ups, by Mary Ryan, WestBIC, UnicornQuest project, Ireland 

Prep4Seed is a 12-week support program, that brings selected High-Growth start-up clients through the investor readiness process quickly and effectively, in preparation to pitch for investment funding. It is delivered at a national level in Ireland, in response to the need for new start-ups to be sufficiently prepared at an early stage to successfully pitch for investment funding.

• Kaunas Startup Awards, by Vaiva Kelmelyte, Kaunas Science and Technology Park, VIADUCT project, Lithuania

This initiative rewards startups, creating meaningful national and global innovations. Startups Awards is a powerful instrument in Kaunas region, as it helps to promote entrepreneurship, successful business and science collaboration and innovation development processes, while boosting Kaunas visibility as a startup city.

• Support program for startup ecosystem activities, by Ieva Felmena / Mārtiņš Pakalniņš, Riga Investment and Tourism Agency, SKALE2CT project, Latvia (tbc)

The purpose of the program is to promote the growth of the start-up ecosystem in Riga with the help of co-financing, supporting the activities of organizations whose daily work is related to the development of start-ups, thus promoting the emergence of new start-ups and promoting the recognition of Riga as a start-up-friendly city.

Register below