The British Ladies Club of Luxembourg (BLC) has released further details of its upcoming Women’s Startup Pitch Evening which will take place on Thursday 4 June 2026 at Hall Victor Hugo in Luxembourg-Limpertsberg.

The BLC describes the Women’s Startup Pitch Evening as an opportunity for English-speaking women residing in Luxembourg who are at idea, concept or early prototype stage to pitch their idea to a judging panel composed of senior English-speaking female leaders with international experience, bringing a professional and informed perspective to the assessment process.

The initiative is an extension of the club’s mission to support women, entrepreneurship and community engagement in Luxembourg.

The BLC highlighted that, through its activities it meets women from many backgrounds who have strong business ideas, yet some feel that the practical structure around turning an idea into a viable project can at times be daunting. Administrative steps such as setting up a company, opening a bank account and addressing commercial considerations can create hesitation at an early stage. 

In response to this, the Women’s Startup Pitch Evening was created to provide an environment where ideas can be presented, tested and refined, while allowing founders to receive feedback from experienced female leaders and to connect with Luxembourg’s wider entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Participation in the pitching initiative is open to all women residing in Luxembourg, without any participation fee and without the requirement to be a member of the BLC, subject to registration. The applications process will be conducted in English in order to be inclusive of Luxembourg’s wider international community.

How to apply

Applications are to be submitted through an application form which can be obtained by sending an email to startup@blc.lu.

The BLC Startup Committee will review each application and select participants to take part in the pitching contest. Participants will be informed of their selection by the end of March. Each selected participant will then be assigned to one of the mentors of the programme, with mentorship sessions scheduled to take place during April and May.

The BLC has detailed that the evaluation criteria will focus on elements such as the clarity of the problem addressed, the strength of the proposed solution, understanding of the target market, feasibility of implementation and the overall clarity and effectiveness of the pitch.

Participants will be informed of their selection by the end of March.

Mentorship phase

A key element of the initiative is the mentorship phase preceding the event. During April and May, selected participants will work with experienced mentors who have volunteered their time to support the initiative. The objective is to refine each founder’s message, strengthen commercial clarity and sharpen pitch delivery ahead of the live presentation.

The mentors supporting the programme are:

⁃ Svetlana Grishankova: Finance and ESG professional, LSE alumna with sustainability experience and more than ten years managing EU ESMA regulated entities, PwC Dragons’ Den prize winner;

⁃ Julie Ayres Smith: Shared services and transformation professional with extensive experience in operational improvement and end to end process optimisation within complex international organisations, who brings a practical, execution-focused perspective, supporting founders in translating ideas into scalable and effective operating models.

Pitch evening

The Startup Pitch Evening will take place on Thursday 4 June and is designed as a combination of practical insight for the audience and a live pitching contest.

The programme will include an information segment with practical guidance from a representative from the House of Entrepreneurship of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce on setting up a company in Luxembourg and guidance from Banque Raiffeisen Luxembourg on opening a bank account for newly established companies.

The pitching contest will then take place, with selected founders presenting their startup in a three minute pitch in front of the jury and the audience. The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session with the jury, after which the jury will withdraw for deliberation.

During the jury deliberation, the audience and partner organisations will also have the opportunity to ask questions to the pitchers. This will be followed by a networking segment, including a fireside founder talk by Jessica Cooke, founder of Definance, who will share insights from her entrepreneurial journey and her experience of starting a new business in Luxembourg.

The evening will conclude with the awards ceremony, followed by networking between the audience, pitchers, jury, mentors and members of the British Ladies’ Club of Luxembourg.

Jury members

The judging panel will consist of senior female leaders from Luxembourg’s professional community:

⁃ British Ambassador to Luxembourg, Joanne Olivier, Chair of the panel;

⁃ Giulia Iannucci, Deputy CEO MAQIT, Founder and CEO KnowThyBrand, Vice Chair British Chamber of Commerce for Luxembourg;

⁃ Christine O’Bright, Founder Bright Futures Sàrl, certified professional coach and trainer.

Awards

Two prizes will be presented at the awards ceremony: 

⁃ First Prize: €500 cash award donated by a former Chair of the British Ladies’ Club of Luxembourg;

⁃ Second Prize: a startup course offered by the Polish Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg. The course forms part of the Chamber’s entrepreneurship programme and is linked to its own startup competition and awards gala.