Growth expo: Tomorrow’s big players

Web Summit Lisbon 2025: Growth Expo Unveils Future-Shaping Innovations

The Web Summit Startup Showcase, hosted by Ms. Rita Picarra, a former Microsoft CFO, presented “tomorrow’s big players” from the Growth Expo. Innovators across AI, fintech, health tech, hospitality, and clean tech delivered concise pitches, showcasing their market-disrupting solutions at Web Summit Lisbon 2025.

Several AI-focused startups demonstrated transformative technologies. Mr. Marco, CEO of Sensay, introduced an AI tool capturing experienced employees’ knowledge into a chatbot for new Gen Z hires, ensuring instant access to company information. Mr. Saad Sohail, Marketing Lead at Grona.ai, presented an AI layer that transforms static websites into dynamic, personalized experiences, aiming for a 20-30% conversion rate increase.

Mr. Maxime Julien, CEO of Solid State of Mind Inc., unveiled “deep meaning” AI, which grounds knowledge in understanding, outperforming current AI with significantly less energy and data. Mr. Kirill Solodskikh, CEO and Co-founder of TheStage AI, showcased ANA, an inference acceleration stack that compresses neural networks, making them 2-3 times cheaper to deploy with “lossless compression.”

In specialized AI applications, Ms. Nour Al Taher, Co-founder/CEO of Intella, tackled Arabic’s underrepresentation, developing the most accurate speech-to-text engine for dialectal Arabic (95.7% accuracy) for call center solutions. Mr. Sanchenba, CEO and founder of CGINSIDE, presented an AI agent simplifying complex government regulations, assisting hospitals with insurance rules.

Fintech and operational efficiency were also key themes. Mr. Roland Schüpfer, CEO of Avendo, detailed an AI platform revolutionizing real estate by connecting buyers and agents, analyzing intent, and identifying potential sellers. Mr. Josh Borg, founder of Investre, addressed the investment fund industry’s outdated systems, providing a regulated DLT-empowered capital market infrastructure for fund token safekeeping and 24/7 trading.

Mr. Murad Mordukhay, Founder of Qencode, offered solutions for video platforms. Their “per title encoding” AI optimizes file sizes by 60% without quality loss, ensuring faster loading and reduced costs. Mr. Vladislav, founder of Tivio Studio, highlighted their award-winning interactive TV technology, integrating multi-camera views, in-stream conversions, payments, and real-time interactive elements for enhanced user engagement.

Workforce and design innovation were also featured. Mr. Lukas Foglar, Co-Founder & CPO of LutherOne, presented an ecosystem predicting organizational futures, with modules generating data for accurate predictions of attrition, burnout, or performance issues up to 14 months ahead. Mr. Adam, founder of UXPilot, presented an AI design tool that transforms ideas into production-ready designs in minutes, using clients’ design systems, boasting 300,000 users and $4.2 million ARR.

Logistics and e-commerce solutions rounded out the showcase. Mr. Christoph Busch, CEO of Maple Aviation, introduced drone logistics for urban traffic. With Europe’s first BVLOS certification, Maple Aviation will transport critical hospital goods in Munich, revolutionizing medical logistics. Ms. Krystel Abi Assi, Founder and CEO of Amazon Sellers Society – Middle East, supports sellers on Amazon in the Middle East, offering accreditation and tools to understand KPIs and profitability.

Finally, Mr. Dongmin Lee, CEO of GoLe Robotics, introduced autonomous mobile robots for night-time construction material transport. These modular robots aim to reduce human labor and shorten construction periods, addressing workforce shortages. Mr. Ivan Marchuk, CEO & Founder of GEMCY, introduced a global digital cooperative fostering collective capital growth through trust and collaboration.