Slush 100 2026

Slush 100 draws a hard line around who may enter. The company must have been founded in 2023 or later, must have raised less than EUR 10M to date, and must still be at seed stage or earlier. Later-stage teams are excluded by design, which keeps the field genuinely early.

The prize is a EUR 500,000 investment made without taking a stake, so the winner leaves with the money and the ownership it arrived with.

The competition is staged at Slush itself, which runs on 18 and 19 November 2026 at Messukeskus, the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre, and draws around 12,000 people. Applications for the 2026 edition closed on 7 September 2026.

Slush said on LinkedIn in September 2026 that more than 1,400 startups applied for the 2026 edition, a record, and that 100 were shortlisted. Wave Ventures, the Helsinki firm whose investment team is all 25 or under, picks the 20 semifinalists from that 100.

Slush stages its flagship pitch competition in Helsinki, and the prize is a EUR 500,000 investment and no equity is taken. Eligibility is tightly drawn: companies must have been founded in 2023 or later, have raised under EUR 10M and still be at seed stage or earlier. That rules out later-stage teams but makes the field genuinely early.

More than 1,400 startups applied for the 2026 edition, a record, and 100 were shortlisted. Wave Ventures, the Helsinki firm whose investment team is all 25 or under, picks the 20 semifinalists from that 100. The 20 pitch at Startup Stage during Slush in November. Slush published both the application figure and Wave Ventures’ role on LinkedIn in September 2026.