Venture Days 2024 Wraps with AI to the Fore

The Luxembourg Venture Days 2024 has been taking place at LuxExpo The Box in Luxembourg-Kirchberg; started in 2023, this two-day event is spread over various conference rooms and an exhibition room, also with a central networking foyer.

Organised by Luxinnovation and the Luxembourg Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LPEA), with the support and participation of various players within the innovation ecosystem, the event is aimed at investors, startups and scaleups; it also focuses on several national and international flagship initiatives participating together in a single event.

On the second day of the 2024 event, Chronicle.lu attended the Closing Ceremony involving the Luxembourg Association of Corporate Treasurers (ATEL), in the presence of the Crown Prince Guillaume and Lex Delles, Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism. Over 300 people attended this closing event which was held in English at the Main Stage.

Stéphane Pesch, CEO of Luxembourg Private Equity and VC Association (LPEA), and Michel Rzonzef, President of Luxembourg Business Angel Network (LBAN), welcomed all attendees to the Main Stage for the Closing Ceremony. Stéphane Pesch talked about LPEA and its 600 members and its activities in Luxembourg and abroad; he confirmed that 750+ people have attended the two-day Venture Day 2024 event. Michel Rzonzef explained that LBAN now has 150 members, providing holistic solutions to help investors, working with Venture Capitalists and being key drivers of innovation.

Minister Lex Delles talked about linking Luxembourg's startup community with decision-makers; he thank the various organisations involved in both the innovation ecosystem as well as encouraging so many people to attend this event. He reference the launch of a Startup Action Plan which will build on the national roadmap established by the government; he will announce details of the Action Plan in the coming months, together with the Ministry of Finance, also involving other organisations such as LIST. He also addressed talent attraction and retention, with a centralised platform being established to support such work. On access to funding, he talked about the access of innovation funding through initiatives such as Fit4Start.

Yannick Oswald, Partner at Mangrove Capital Partners, moderated a round table on "the current state of venture capital, in Luxembourg, Europe, and elsewhere", with Victoire Laurenty, Principal at Wendel, Michael McGraw, Principal - Growth Equity at Inovia Capital, Jeremy Shure, Senior Investment Partner at Salla, and Philippe Nyssen, Principal at Sofina. The discussion addressed capital availability and liquidity challenges, as well as AI.

Marjut Falkstedt, CEO of European Investment Fund (EIF), talked about VC boosting investment opportunities, highlighting areas where investment has traditionally been limited or even non-existent. She talked about specialised fund managers, dedicated fund structures and the roles of both national and regional governments who should be looking out for new opportunities; she emphasised the importance of investing in our future and working closely with fund managers.

Dusan Stojanovic, Founding Partner of True Global Ventures 4 Plus, delivered a keynote speech on "AI Megatrends". He talked about Nikola Tesla who lived at the time of Thomas Edison, and revealed that he (Dusan Stojanovic) is a fourth generation Tesla. He also referred to this week's announcements regarding the Nobel prizes, where those for Chemistry and Physics were awarded for work related to AI which highlights a new era in research. He also talked about five verticals of application of AI: in Legal, Marketing and Sales, Coding/Cybersecurity, Education and Sustainability.

Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation, delivered the Closing Words. She thanked everyone for attending "two amazing days" of the Venture Days 2024. She talked about European values and finding solutions to common problems. She talked about the innovation gap in Europe, the challenges facing innovators getting to market, as laid out in the recent Draghi report. She said that the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for a network of trusted investors to be created and foster greater expertise to finance startups and scaleups across such networks.

Lastly, but before the Closing Ceremony cocktail, the 20 startups selected (out of 60 pitching candidates from an original list of 420 startups) to participate in the Fit 4 Start Accelerator Programme #15 were revealed, as follows:

- Digital track (11): Social Cooling, VizyOnAir, TradDocs, MAIC OS, DataSecure Anti-Ransomware by Cortex Security SA, Essembl, Letz Trail, Symbiotics, Elora Call, Wequity and Algora.

- HealthTech track (5): ZenZen, Helical, Global Particle Therapy, Glacies Biome and TrialCraft.

- Space track (4): Aeon, ESGSAT, Exobiosphere and TerraEye.