Spark Your Startup's Growth
Welcome, founders! If you're steering an early-stage startup through the exciting chaos of scaling, Upstream Festival is your launchpad. We're all about connecting startups, capital, and opportunities in a vibrant, community-driven environment designed to fuel your journey.
What is Upstream?
Upstream is where early-stage startups like yours find the capital and opportunities to thrive. Founders and investors are invited to join us to spark growth through funding opportunities, strategic partnerships, and peer-learning sessions. With a special focus on three industry tracks – Port & Maritime, Health & Wellbeing, and Climate & Energy – while continuing to welcome innovations from all sectors, Upstream ensures your ideas get the attention they deserve.
Our tracks dive deep into high-potential sectors transforming Europe's economy:
- Port & Maritime: Tailored for innovators in logistics optimisation, port automation, vessel technology, and sustainable supply chains. Explore AI-enabled operations, digital twins, and next-gen mobility to revolutionize global trade. Connect with port leaders, investors, and peers to accelerate your maritime tech solutions.
- Health & Wellbeing: Perfect for pioneers in digital health, biotech, med-tech, and preventative care. From data-driven patient solutions to mental wellbeing innovations, link up with impact investors, hospitals, and research-driven companies to push boundaries in healthtech and life sciences.
- Climate & Energy: For trailblazers tackling decarbonisation, clean energy storage, circularity, and smart grids. Join founders, policymakers, and corporates to fast-track your climate tech and contribute to Europe's green transition with scalable, tech-driven impact.
Who We Mean by "Startup"
We're talking to founders and employees of incorporated startups or scale-ups with an innovative, scalable business model. If you've got a novel idea that's ready to disrupt and expand, whether it's your first funding round or a pivot to growth, you belong here.
Why Founders Should Attend Upstream
Upstream delivers warm intros, actionable insights, and momentum you can feel. We call it engineered serendipity:
- Connect with other founders: Swap stories, co-create solutions, and build a lifelong network in casual meetups and peer-learning workshops.
- Meet investors: Rub shoulders with VCs, angels.Set up speeddates and turn serendipity into signed term sheets.
- Grow and scale your business: Dive into workshops and walk away with tools, tactics, and partnerships to hit your next milestone faster.
Don't just take our word for it, see how Upstream turns conversations into capital.
Real Impact: Passionfruit's Upstream Story
At Upstream 2023, Passionfruit founders Maikel Fontein struck up a casual chat with investor Kristian De Lange from Smarter Ventures about food industry challenges. A year later, at Upstream 2024, that spark ignited into a game-changing 2.5-hour strategy deep-dive. The result? A €250,000 convertible loan with minimal dilution, plus a spot in the Venture Grower Program for expert guidance on financials, value props, and international expansion.
Passionfruit pivoted from sustainability to quality-focused automation, now empowering thousands of food suppliers with proactive insights and data-driven wins. Your breakthrough could be one "hello" away.
