LVD Conference Closes Out in Presence of Grand Duke Guillaume

On the afternoon of Thursday 23 October 2025, the closing ceremony of the Luxembourg Venture Days (LVD) conference took place at LuxExpo in Luxembourg-Kirchberg in the presence of Grand Duke Guillaume.

The closing ceremony marked the end of the LVD two-day conference, which hosted a variety of seminars and panel discussions on the subjects of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), defence and investment, in a bid to foster conversation and collaboration between start-up companies and investors.

The closing ceremony, moderated by Kasia Balek, featured an opening address from Luxembourg Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles, who congratulated the event organisers and said: “I am committed to supporting the continued growth and success of our start-up ecosystem. That is why in March, together with the Minister of Finance, we announced a 10-point action plan for start-ups. This plan focuses on concrete, targeted measures designed to address the real needs of start-ups and scale-ups and the ecosystem in general.”

Minister Delles then detailed the government’s work in helping entrepreneurs and start-ups throughout 2025, noting the 10-point action plan for start-ups, the Ministry of Finance’s tax initiative for investment in start-ups, the Ministry of Economy’s dedicated financial support scheme and the launch of a new programme which aims to support five scale-ups over nine months as they expand their business into the European Union.

He remarked: “Luxembourg is proud to be the right place for innovative start-ups and scale-ups to find the funding they need to grow in the EU. Let us continue to innovate, build, finance and scale together.”

There then followed a roundtable discussion on “Investment perspectives and dynamics in the start-up ecosystem”, which featured contributions from George Davies, General Partner at Four Cities Capital, Alon Kuperman, Partner at Bullhound Capital, Benjamin Sabatier, Principal at Sofina, Rokas Peciulaitis, Founder, Contrarian Ventures, and was moderated by Yannick Oswald, Partner, Mangrove Capital.

The subjects covered included the effect of AI on capital concentration and the profile of technology companies, the influence of defence spending, the speed of change in the venture ecosystem and how smaller tech funds have to diversify to remain relevant and attractive to investors.

Jillian Manus, Managing Partner, Structure Capital and US Venture Advisor for the European Innovation Council, then gave the event’s keynote speech titled “Invest in values, not just valuations”, in which she recounted her experience in venture capital, the success and failures of business ownership, conversations with US Presidents and the importance of trust, transparency, appreciation and patience in working with people to achieve success and the value of failure in recognising and achieving one’s full potential.

The ceremony’s closing remarks were delivered by Mario Grotz, CEO, Luxinnovation and Stéphane Pesch, CEO, LPEA, in which they highlighted the growth of Luxembourg Venture Days, this edition featuring more than 4,000 participants - an increase of 30% compared to last year -  and more than 600 investors - an increase of almost 100%.

Mario Grotz said: “Luxembourg Venture Days is really an essential event to promote innovation.” He added: “Entrepreneurs and innovators face challenges when looking to move from R&D to commercialisation and when searching for funding. They have to deal with Europe's fragmented capital market and limited access to venture capital. So, addressing this issue by facilitating the connection between start-ups and innovators is essential. This definitely is the objective of Luxembourg Venture Days.”

Looking to the future and the success of Luxembourg’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, Stéphane Pesch remarked: “Luxembourg as the number one European funds hub is really well placed […] that is due to hard work, agility and innovation.” He added: “We have a fantastic flexible toolbox, distribution capacity is absolutely recognised by the most, let us say, famous and largest investors around the world. And certainly, also a vibrant ecosystem of professionals who are helping day after day all the entrepreneurs and also the investors to get really great performance.”

The ceremony concluded with the announcement of the final participants in Luxinnovation’s Fit4Start accelerator programme. A record 495 startups from 61 countries applied. During the two-day conference, 65 startups, active in the digital, health technologies and space sectors, gave their pitches, with the jury selecting 20 startups: ten in digital, five in health technologies, and five in space. 

The winners in each category were:

Digital
CryptaCount (Luxembourg)
Djooky (Ukraine)
Mobile AI Waste Scan (CRAB) (Luxembourg)
MoveMe (Luxembourg)
Offinite (Luxembourg)
PanIAM (Luxembourg)
RoasterCup (Luxembourg)
Scrioo (Luxembourg)
Tenta Vision (Germany)
WiziPet (Luxembourg)

Health Technologies
AutiHD (Luxembourg)
CalorAI (Luxembourg)
Hale-X (Luxembourg)
Lihoury Project (Luxembourg)
Sendance (Austria)

Space
BabAI Orbital (Estonia)
Lyrasense (United Kingdom)
Muotech (Poland)
Spargo Space (United States)
Tumi Robotics Space (Luxembourg)

The event then concluded with a networking cocktail.