Innovating for Impact: Web Summit Lisbon 2026 PITCH Semi-Finalists Showcase Groundbreaking Solutions
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<img decoding="async" src="" alt="Richard Forde" align="left" hspace="10" width="200" style="float:left;margin-right: 15px"> The Web Summit Lisbon 2026 PITCH semi-final showcased a diverse array of innovative startups, each presenting solutions to pressing global challenges. The event highlighted the entrepreneurial spirit and technological advancements across various sectors, from personal finance and health to environmental protection and education. Judges were particularly impressed by the founders&#8217; passion and the clear purpose driving their ventures.
Linda Du, Founder &amp; CEO of Moola, introduced an AI-powered personal financial planning platform. Moola addresses the inaccessibility and perceived bias of traditional financial advice, with 80% of surveyed customers preferring AI for financial discussions. The platform, already live, offers a holistic view of finances, scenario modeling in natural language, and tracks progress against financial plans.
Moola boasts 1700 direct banking integrations across the UK and EU, alongside six full tax engines for regions including the UK, US, and Germany. Unlike budgeting apps, it focuses on significant financial levers, providing reliable, rules-based, and deterministic numbers. The company is expanding into B2B2C channels and seeking regulation for investment products, aiming to tap into a global financial advisory market valued at $3 trillion.
Scott Mongold, co-founder and CSO of UMO Health, presented a wearable device designed to read the nervous system. Targeting musculoskeletal dysfunction, which affects over 1.68 billion people globally, UMO Health differentiates itself from cardiovascular-focused wearables. Their initial app collected 6000 hand tremor tests from 1500 athletes, demonstrating the importance of nervous system data for training and recovery.
UMO Health is developing a continuous nervous system monitor using a patent-pending high-density electromyography (EMG) pod with 32 electrodes. This technology aims to assess neural fatigue, injury risk, and aging. With advancements in real-time biofeedback and shrinking hardware, UMO Health is poised to deliver a sleek, wireless wearable, leveraging the team&#8217;s deep expertise in neuroscience and biomechanics.
Amani Abulaban, Founder and CEO of Carevision, shared a deeply personal motivation behind her AI-driven platform for early detection of cardiac and metabolic conditions. Cardiac diseases are the leading cause of death globally, often undetected until too late. Carevision enables healthcare providers to screen for 14 conditions in just 30 seconds using any mobile camera, without wearables or needles.
The proprietary AI model analyzes camera-based digital biomarkers, instantly categorizing users by risk and integrating data with health information systems. Carevision operates on a B2B model, serving population health screening, home monitoring, and insurance. With 97% accuracy from training on 12 million ECG records, the company has secured commercial contracts and an agreement with the Saudi Ministry of Health, expanding into Africa.
Clive Nabale, Founder &amp; CEO of Zoyk, presented a payments platform tackling fragmented payment systems in Southern Africa. Zoyk&#8217;s unified API consolidates various payment methods, enabling real-time reconciliations for businesses. Their SoftPOS application transforms any Android device into a point-of-sale terminal, facilitating Visa payments even in rural areas, promoting true financial inclusion.
Zoyk has demonstrated impressive growth, with $5 million in transaction volume in October and a projected $35 million for the current year. Operating in DRC, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the company plans to expand across 16 SADC countries. Zoyk&#8217;s strategy involves building traditional infrastructure and collecting data to integrate AI for future products like SME lending, seeking $900,000 for growth.
Mantas Vičius, co-founder and CEO of BeBright, introduced a personalized mathematics learning platform. Addressing a significant decline in math proficiency among 15-year-olds, BeBright uses diagnostic testing to identify learning gaps. It then creates adaptive learning pathways with over 1000 video lessons and thousands of exercises, providing dashboards for targeted intervention by teachers and municipalities.
BeBright has over 45,000 students on its platform, generating a projected €1.2 million in revenue this year in Lithuania alone, serving a third of the country&#8217;s schools. Independent research indicates BeBright&#8217;s practice leads to twice the math progress compared to tutoring. The company, recognized by the UN and Google, is raising €1.5 million to expand into Poland and Austria.
Mattias Åsell, CEO of Ankra, presented an AI Platform Engineer that simplifies running applications. While building with AI has become easier, deploying and maintaining applications securely, scalably, and cost-efficiently remains complex. Ankra acts as a specialist team, connecting code and managing its operation on any cloud or server infrastructure, including deploying AI models.
Ankra&#8217;s platform allows for automated production environment changes without human intervention, as demonstrated by a customer who made 15 changes autonomously. Another client reduced cloud costs by 85% and avoided hiring infrastructure engineers for two years. With €51,000 in platform ARR and over €211,000 in revenue this year, Ankra is raising €3 million to expand its enterprise customer base in Europe.
Alessandro Lebourgeois, Founder &amp; CEO of AquaX Robotics, showcased &#8220;Wally,&#8221; an autonomous AI robot designed to clean water bodies. Addressing the global plastic waste crisis, Wally navigates autonomously to collect floating waste and remove surface oil using patented systems. The robot also measures up to nine water quality parameters, providing real-time data to operators.
AquaX Robotics has operated in over 30 locations across France, Spain, and Portugal, securing more than 100 contracts in Europe. The business model involves selling the robot for €53,000, plus a €600 monthly software license and support fee. With an ambition for clean water worldwide, AquaX Robotics plans to scale production to meet demand and expand its fleets.
Hyunji Lee, Global BD Manager and Co-Founder of Sakak Inc., presented an AI Health Coordinator addressing preventable deaths and patient dissatisfaction with healthcare. Their AI solution connects health data, explains test results in plain language, and offers personalized health advice, empowering users to take action and connect with professionals.
Launched with a major South Korean insurer, Sakak Inc. has seen a 2000% revenue increase and 4.8/5 user satisfaction. The company aims for €1.5 million in European revenue within a year and is expanding its hyper-precise AI beyond healthcare. Sakak Inc. envisions a world where everyone has access to an AI health coach, closing gaps in care.
Camila Feltrin, Co-founder &amp; CEO of NeuroXense, introduced a platform for early Parkinson&#8217;s disease detection. Currently, less than 1% of cases are diagnosed before symptoms, leading to significant medical expenses. NeuroXense uses tear samples to detect specific proteins with AI-designed molecules, providing objective results for disease tracking.
nOperating on a B2B licensing model, NeuroXense targets the $7 billion neurodegenerative diagnostic market. Its competitive advantages include being non-invasive, pre-symptomatic, low-cost, and adaptable to any lab. Currently in the pre-clinical stage, NeuroXense is raising $2.25 million to advance to working with real patient tears by 2027, aiming to make early detection the standard.
The judges, including Shivani Sopory and Tarek Ebeid from KPMG, Cliona Jordan from Google, and Conor Moynagh from HubSpot, praised the startups&#8217; clear purpose, personal stories, and deep domain expertise. They emphasized the importance of passion, networking, and focusing on the product, people, and potential. The Web Summit platform was highlighted as crucial for distribution.
Ultimately, Moola, Carevision, and Zoyk were selected as the three finalists to advance in the PITCH competition, demonstrating their strong potential and innovative solutions. The audience will have a say in the grand final, becoming the fifth judge to decide the ultimate winner.

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