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June 3, 2026

Impact Report 2026

Upstream Festival 2026 brought together founders, investors, ecosystem builders, corporates, students, and partners from across the Netherlands and beyond for a week centred around one thing: meaningful connections.

With a clear focus on curation and collaboration, this year’s edition combined talks, workshops, side events, speed dates, founder meetups, investor dinners, and startup pitches into a community-driven programme designed to help startups move forward.

A Week Powered by the Ecosystem

From May 18–22, the Upstream community came together across side events and the main festival day at Rotterdam’s Van Nelle Fabriek. In total, the festival featured:

  • 23 side events
  • 28 speakers and workshop hosts
  • 29 exhibitors
  • 2 stages and 2 workshop hubs
  • 11 startup pitches
  • 296 investor speed dates
  • Participants from 26 countries
  • 2,850 total connections made

This year’s edition maintained a strong founder focus, with a 3:1 startup-to-investor ratio helping ensure that founders remained at the centre of the experience.

More Than Networking

Throughout the week, founders connected with investors, potential co-founders, ecosystem partners, and customers in formats designed to create genuine interaction rather than transactional networking.

The side events ranged from breakfasts and dinners to workshops, panels, Q&As, and sport experiences, all organised together with partners across the region.

At the main event, attendees joined talks, panels, workshops, and startup pitches while scheduling meetings with investors and corporate buyers.

The Founder Lounge provided a dedicated founders-only space where startup and scale-up founders could exchange experiences, build relationships, and join focused “power hours” throughout the day.

Meanwhile, the Speeddate Area facilitated investor meetings both through the event platform and through the Connector Desk on-site.

Industry Focus With Room for Every Sector

While Upstream remains track-agnostic and open to startups from all industries, this year included dedicated focus areas in:

  • Port & Maritime
  • Health & Wellbeing
  • Climate & Energy

The festival welcomed startups and investors across a wide range of industries, including climate tech, health, enterprise software, biotech, robotics, semiconductors, food, transportation, space, legal, and security.

Conversations That Continue Beyond the Event

One of the strongest themes throughout the week was the value of bringing the right people together in the right setting.

Founders came looking for funding, partnerships, feedback, co-founders, or simply the right conversation to help them move forward. Investors and ecosystem partners joined to discover ambitious startups and deepen relationships across the ecosystem.

As several attendees reflected throughout the report, the impact of Upstream is not just in the programme itself, but in what happens after the event: the follow-up meetings, collaborations, introductions, and momentum that continue long after the festival ends.

Community-Driven From Start to Finish

Upstream 2026 was made possible together with more than 41 co-creation partners and a broad network of ecosystem organisations, investors, and programme partners.

From startup hubs and universities to investors, corporates, public organisations, and regional initiatives, the festival continues to grow through collaboration across the Dutch and European startup ecosystem.

And while the numbers tell part of the story, the real impact remains harder to quantify: the introductions that become partnerships, the conversations that become investments, and the founders who leave with renewed momentum.

§Download the full Impact Report here.

See you in 2027.

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