Key Takeaways
- • The EU-Startups Summit returns May 7-8, 2026 in Malta, featuring the "Investors on Stage" session where approximately 15 leading venture capital firms present their investment theses and sector focus directly to founders on the main stage across both days.
- • The "Investors on Stage" format reverses traditional pitch dynamics, positioning investors as presenters rather than audiences, enabling founders to identify capital sources aligned with their stage, sector, and growth ambitions before structured networking conversations.
- • Confirmed participants include Alexander Zemlyak (Principal, Geek Ventures), a pre-Seed and Seed-stage investor with nearly a decade of VC experience specializing in B2B software and data infrastructure, and Ana Fernandez (Investment Associate, Nauta), focusing on early-stage B2B software across enterprise software, AI/ML, data, security, and deeptech sectors.
- • The session targets founders actively fundraising or in planning stages, providing direct exposure to multiple capital sources and reducing information asymmetry regarding investor mandates and investment criteria.
Summary
The EU-Startups Summit will convene thousands of founders, investors, and ecosystem participants in Malta on May 7-8, 2026, with the "Investors on Stage" session serving as a flagship programming component. This curated format allocates dedicated main-stage time for approximately 15 leading venture capital firms to present their investment mandates, sector specializations, and current acquisition criteria without the pressure of traditional pitch settings.
The structural innovation of the session—inverting the typical founder-pitch-to-investor dynamic—addresses a recurring pain point in venture capital fundraising: information asymmetry regarding investor focus areas and capital availability. By positioning investors as active presenters, the format enables founders to rapidly assess strategic fit across multiple firms and prepare targeted follow-up conversations during the broader two-day networking program.
Among confirmed participants, Geek Ventures brings institutional depth through Alexander Zemlyak, whose investment background spans pre-Seed and Seed-stage deployment across verticals including B2B software, data infrastructure, and scaling operations. Zemlyak's professional history includes roles at LETA Capital, Founders Factory, and Magical Capital, reflecting exposure to multiple capital structures and thesis development methodologies. Complementing early-stage focus, Nauta Capital participates through Ana Fernandez, whose mandate encompasses early-stage B2B software companies with particular emphasis on enterprise software, artificial intelligence and machine learning applications, data platforms, security and privacy infrastructure, developer tools, and deep technology verticals.
The session architecture serves multiple stakeholder objectives: for actively fundraising founders, it provides direct capital source mapping; for investors, it enables efficient screening of relevant deal flow within compressed timeframes; and for the broader ecosystem, it generates transparency regarding current market capital allocation priorities. The event timing and venue selection in Malta position the summit within the European venture capital calendar as a critical networking inflection point for Q2 2026 fundraising cycles.
The structural innovation of the session—inverting the typical founder-pitch-to-investor dynamic—addresses a recurring pain point in venture capital fundraising: information asymmetry regarding investor focus areas and capital availability. By positioning investors as active presenters, the format enables founders to rapidly assess strategic fit across multiple firms and prepare targeted follow-up conversations during the broader two-day networking program.
Among confirmed participants, Geek Ventures brings institutional depth through Alexander Zemlyak, whose investment background spans pre-Seed and Seed-stage deployment across verticals including B2B software, data infrastructure, and scaling operations. Zemlyak's professional history includes roles at LETA Capital, Founders Factory, and Magical Capital, reflecting exposure to multiple capital structures and thesis development methodologies. Complementing early-stage focus, Nauta Capital participates through Ana Fernandez, whose mandate encompasses early-stage B2B software companies with particular emphasis on enterprise software, artificial intelligence and machine learning applications, data platforms, security and privacy infrastructure, developer tools, and deep technology verticals.
The session architecture serves multiple stakeholder objectives: for actively fundraising founders, it provides direct capital source mapping; for investors, it enables efficient screening of relevant deal flow within compressed timeframes; and for the broader ecosystem, it generates transparency regarding current market capital allocation priorities. The event timing and venue selection in Malta position the summit within the European venture capital calendar as a critical networking inflection point for Q2 2026 fundraising cycles.
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