A Look Back at the START Summit 2026
23.03.2026
Emma Schmitt
Backstage
The START Summit is no ordinary conference. It’s one of the few places where you can have a conversation with a Swiss investor, a founder from Singapore, and a student from Karlsruhe all at the same time—and it all feels completely natural. We were there again from April 18 to 20, 2026. And this time, we had one of our biggest appearances yet.
By Bus to St. Gallen
Wednesday morning, KIT Karlsruhe. A bus, 30 students, lots of laptops, and the expectation that the next 36 hours won’t exactly be relaxing. This trip was made possible by our partner StartUpSecure KASTEL—the network for cybersecurity startups, funded by the Federal Ministry.
We weren’t traveling as KIT alone, but as the DeepTechHub Hacker Team—a network of seven partner universities in Baden-Württemberg that connects entrepreneurial talent across university boundaries. Same hoodies, same drive.
At the START Hack—one of Europe’s largest student hackathons with over 600 participants from around the world—our teams worked for 36 hours on real-world company challenges. Between sleeping bags on the floor, Mario Kart at midnight, and international exchanges, something emerged that’s hard to put into words: that feeling of working together on something bigger than yourself.
And then came the highlight: Our team—led by Moussa Kassem Sbeyti, Christopher Ries, Niklas Lutze, and Maximilian Graf—won their company challenge—and took the big summit stage for the final pitch. Congratulations!
Baden-Württemberg in the Alpine Area – a strong joint presence
In parallel with the hackathon, as partners of the DeepTechHub and the NXTGN Startup Factory, we were part of the Baden-Württemberg delegation in the Alpine Area at the START Summit. And this year, the delegation was remarkably strong.
Represented at the joint booth were The Länd, the Start-up BW accelerators, NXTGN – and a joint booth featuring all six INSPIRE BW Hubs: DeepTechHub, TriAS, INSPIRE2Start, StartupSÜD, Schwarzwälder Gründergeist, and Kilometer1. Each hub brought a startup that was able to showcase itself free of charge. The result: a booth that embodied the ecosystem in the best possible way.
The fact that this year’s delegation also included State Secretary Patrick Rapp and Arndt Upfold, Head of the Start-up Division at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, lent the appearance even greater significance. Political delegations, investors, and many international guests stopped by the booth—the conversations were substantive, not superficial.
What we took away
Three days of a summit rarely mean simply working through a three-day program. The real value lies elsewhere: in the conversations that arise because you’re in the right place at the right time.
Over 20 new investor contacts emerged from this summit—not from exchanged business cards, but from genuine conversations. Add to that numerous international encounters and the realization of just how strong the network in Baden-Württemberg becomes when everyone sits down at the same table.
Knowledge was also shared and expanded upon on the various stages, in workshops, and during AMA sessions. And it was great to see that startups from our network were also there and used the summit as a platform.
A big thank you goes to our on-site team, especially to Rick Lindner, who, as Hub Manager of DeepTechHub, organized and coordinated so much. And of course to StartUpSecure KASTEL—without you, the bus wouldn’t have run.
