Discover more about this year’s winners and their groundbreaking ideas!
We’re excited to introduce the winners of the AI Pitch Competition 2026! After a highly competitive selection process, these startups made it to the Finale, representing some of the most promising ideas and applications of AI today.
Each winner brings forward a unique solution, demonstrating innovation, creativity, and the potential to make a lasting impact. From energy to safety, from cultural experiences to advanced business applications, they showcase the diverse ways AI can transform our world.
Discover their stories below and read the full article by IO+ here.
Offensys turns security testing from an occasional, labour-intensive exercise into a continuous process. Its platform uses AI to translate current threat intelligence into executable attack scenarios, while keeping explainability and human control central. With the Grand Prize (€50.000), Cor Verhoeven, Sander Maas, and Cas van Cooten can help organisations prove that their defences actually work.
Watch the one-minute pitches from our 2026 winners. These capture each startup’s idea they brought to life, from their problem, their solution to their ambition.
Offensys is a Continuous Purple Teaming platform for automated security validation. Run realistic, behavior-based attack simulations to see what your controls block, what they detect, and what they miss.
As AI agents start acting on their own, Kyvvu makes sure they only do what they are allowed to do. Maurits Kaptein and Jeroen Ghijsen are building a security kernel that checks every intended action against fixed rules before it is executed. With the Runner Up prize (€35.000), Kyvvu can help make autonomous AI safe enough to trust, Kyvvu can help make autonomous AI safe enough to trust.
Watch the one-minute pitches from our 2026 winners. These capture each startup’s idea they brought to life, from their problem, their solution to their ambition.
Kyvvu makes AI agents safe to run at scale. We believe autonomous AI agents will transform how organizations work — but only if every action they take stays within clear, verifiable boundaries. Whether those boundaries come from your own security requirements, industry regulation, or the EU AI Act, Kyvvu turns them into runtime guarantees. Security first; compliance follows for free.
Computer vision models struggle with the cases they rarely see, such as damaged pills, diseased crops, and faulty welds. Martin Tomov, Simeon Dimov, and Robin Dohmen address this with synthetic images with automatic labels so that teams can improve their inspection models faster. With the Second Runner-Up prize (€25.000), Synthgen can help more industries catch defects before they matter.
Watch the one-minute pitches from our 2026 winners. These capture each startup’s idea they brought to life, from their problem, their solution to their ambition.
Synthetic data and automated labeling for computer vision teams. The Synthgen Engine learns your rare classes from your own images, tuned to your vertical and your use case. The variation your model needs, without the collection campaign.
One Horizon, founded by Tijn van Daelen and Gijs van de Nieuwegiessen, helps organisations delegate more work to AI agents without losing consistency, visibility, control, or accountability. Its independent platform brings agents, workflows, and human oversight together. With the Audience Award, they can help companies manage a workforce of AI agents with confidence.
Watch the one-minute pitches from our 2026 winners. These capture each startup’s idea they brought to life, from their problem, their solution to their ambition.
One Horizon solves the organizational problem around AI agents: how to delegate more work without losing consistency, visibility, control, or accountability.
UNSEQ is automating one of aviation’s heaviest jobs: loading and unloading baggage in the hold. Founders Koen van Wijk, Jan-Pieter Rijstenbil, and Robert de Bruijne are working on a solution that eases the physical strain on ground staff. With 1-1 investment manager at BOM and 400€ Uber Eats voucher, they can take this innovation from the pitch stage to the airport apron.
Watch the one-minute pitches from our 2026 winners. These capture each startup’s idea they brought to life, from their problem, their solution to their ambition.
UNSEQ is automating the heaviest aviation job: baggage handling in the hold.
Rigidbody is the brain for data-heavy industrial plants. Charlie Johnston, Alexander Udrea, and Rafael Marques Isakov combine physics-aware time-series models with local language models that make sense of documentation and equipment codes. With the 1 Hour Media Training (from IO+) and 2 free tickets to Upstream Festival (from Erasmus Enterprise), they can help industry turn its data into smarter, more reliable operations.
Watch the one-minute pitches from our 2026 winners. These capture each startup’s idea they brought to life, from their problem, their solution to their ambition.
Rigidbody combines physics simulations and machine learning to save manufacturers time and money.
Founded by Eline Schoonen, be-inc.ai is a real-time writing assistant that lives inside the apps employees already work in. It coaches them on brand, clarity, tone, and inclusivity at the moment the words are written. With 3 months office space at the AI Innovation Centre, be-inc.ai can bring better workplace communication to many more teams.
Watch the one-minute pitches from our 2026 winners. These capture each startup’s idea they brought to life, from their problem to their solution to their ambition.
be-inc.ai is on a mission to create safe workplaces through communication. Be-Inc helps employees communicate clearly, understandably, and purposefully. The tool provides immediate suggestions to make texts simpler, clearer, and more readable, without losing the content.
From processing emails and extracting information from documents to integrating seamlessly with enterprise systems, DataSpeak’s AI agents automate workflows end-to-end while keeping all data within the EU. This innovation earned them MT/Sprout Community tickets & merchandise.
Watch the one-minute pitches from our 2025 winners. These capture each startup’s idea they brought to life, from their problem, their solution to their ambition.
DataSpeak transforms how organizations interact with their systems through simple, natural conversations. While most AI pilots fail to move beyond experimentation, DataSpeak bridges the gap between innovation and real-world implementation. Their multi-agent AI platform goes beyond answering questions – it completes tasks, integrates seamlessly with existing systems, and gets things done. With proven expertise, DataSpeak turns AI pilots into production-ready solutions that deliver real impact.
Stay tuned for the pre-registration period.
Don’t miss your chance to discover their stories, revisit 2025.