The City of Arts and Sciences once again becomes the mecca of Valencian entrepreneurship
There's only one place where the three major players of the Valencian entrepreneurial ecosystem come together every year.
And that place is VDS —"Valencia Digital Summit"—, which has been bringing together the world's leading startups, major corporations and visionary investors since 2018.
Under the slogan "GENESIS. Origin of What's Next", VDS 2026 will hold its ninth edition on 21 and 22 October at the City of Arts and Sciences.
In total, it will bring together more than 3,000 startups, 12,000 attendees from more than 120 countries and will foster key connections with over 800 investors and 600 speakers.
If you have a startup and want to give visibility to your innovative solutions, connect with investors or learn from experts in AI, health or mobility, you need to get a ticket and come to Valencia Digital Summit.
Who will be at VDS 2026
Want to know who you'll run into in the hallways?
In artificial intelligence, standouts include Chris Cunningham, co-founder of ClickUp; David Shim, CEO of Read AI; and Yasmina Benkhoui, who works on agentic AI at NVIDIA.
In investment, there are figures like Saeed Amidi of Plug and Play and Dong-Su Kim of LG Technology Ventures, alongside corporate voices such as Ana Sandra Ruiz —from Spotify— or Patricia Tintori —from AstraZeneca—.
And watch out, because science also has its place.
It will feature leading figures such as Carmen Köhler, analogue astronaut, and José Carmena, a pioneer in brain-computer interfaces.
And if you like technology mixed with other worlds, there's Taras Tarasenko, Ukrainian MP, and Víctor Claver, former NBA player and now investor.
This list is joined by names such as Laura Urquizu —from Red Points—, Sergio Furio —Creditas— or Ana Maiques —from Neuroelectrics—, among many others.
What you can do at VDS
Besides listening to all these figures, you can also take to the Pitch Stage to present your project to investors or set up 1:1 meetings with the world's leading funds and decision-makers.
Not to mention that you can't miss the "Startup Competition", in which 25 companies —chosen from 1,560 applications from 87 countries— will compete on the Main Stage to become the "Best Startup of VDS 2026" in front of an international jury of investors.
And of course, you have to walk around the stand area to get an up-close look at the products and services of the startups and put your skills to the test by taking on cybersecurity challenges and hackathons in areas like "The Challenge".
