The Irish AI Startup Conference 2026
The Irish AI Startup Conference 2026 is a highly curated event, gathering 100 VCs and Irish AI Startup Founders for a full day of discussion, learning & networking.
Where: Convention Centre Dublin
When: Wednesday, 2nd of December, 2026, 9:00am-5:00pm
Theme: The AI Startup Imperative: Building Defensible Moats, Securing Funding & Scaling Technical Teams.
A Highly Curated Audience
Our curated audience AI events receive close to 5/5 feedback, which is why attendance will be strictly limited to:
70 AI Startup Founders & CTOs (NI and ROI-based, early-stage, selected from 700 applications)
10 Ecosystem Stakeholders (Accelerators, Angel Syndicates, Incubators, Government, etc)
20 Venture Capital Investors (maximum two per firm; partner and principal level only)
This event follows the model of The London AI Startup Conference 2025, a highly successful event hosted at Google London, with 127 high-quality attendees chosen from 2,300 applications. Audience curation resulted in very high attendee ratings, speakers included top VCs and unicorn founders, and a 2026 sequel has been confirmed.
European AI Conference
This event is hosted as a dedicated track within the larger European AI Conference 2026, allowing 100 startup and VC attendees to enjoy an intimate, peer-level summit while also having the opportunity to network with 240 of Europe’s top AI Builders, Enterprise Strategists & Product Leaders during networking sessions.
Agenda (Link)
Confirmed Panellists:
Brian McGeough, Chief Information Officer, Creditsafe
Startup Track Roundtable Moderators:
Mary Rodgers, CEO, Portershed
Martina Fitzgerald, CEO, Scale Ireland
Frank Brennan, CEO, Republic of Work
Niamh Sterling, All-Island Director, HBAN
Barry Brennan, Venture Partner, Elkstone
Faye Walsh Drouillard, Founder & Managing Partner, WakeUp Capital
Product Track Roundtable Moderators:
Dervilla Mullan, VP of Product, Sprout Social
Fionn Delahunty, Head of Product, Synthflow AI
Patrick Monaghan, Chief Product Officer, Phorest
Kevin Stembridge, Head of Strategy, Körber Pharma
Gus Iwanaga, VP of Product - Commerce, commercetools
Jeferson Zanim, Chief Product Officer, Mater Private Network
Somnath Biswas, Head of Product - Conversations, Totaljobs Group
Ryan Jude Soosayraj, VP, Mindset AI; Ex-Product Leader at Cognizant, Indeed & Workshare
Florence Jumpp, Group Product Manager - Customer Data & AI, Sainsbury's Digital, Tech and Data
Mark Brophy, AI Product Leader; Ex-Product Leader at Genesys, TripAdvisor and Ding
Haidee McMahon, Interim CPO; Ex-VP of Product, WP Engine
DJ Gangan, Head of Product
John Martin, Chief Product Officer, Flagstone
AI Builder Track Roundtable Moderators:
Alan Smeaton, Professor of Computing, Dublin City University
Siddhant Mohapatra, Head of Global Data & Analytics - AI, Trust & Safety, Ads, Vendor Management, Legal, Ops, Pinterest
Emanuele Sparvoli, Senior Director of IT, Fin
Nitin Sinha, Director, Principal AI Architect - Forward Deployed Engineering - Applied AI, Service Now
Barry Duffy, VP Digital & Data, FINEOS
Shay Weiss, Director of Engineering & AI Transformation, Walgreens Boots Alliance
Tiago Nascimento, Head of IT Delivery, HCLTech
Enterprise AI Strategy Track Roundtable Moderators:
Grainne Maycock, Chief Revenue Officer, Acolad Group
Denis Vukosav, VP of Technology - AI Strategy & Transformation, State Street
Mina Henein, Ph. D., VP of Artificial Intelligence at The Citco Group
Marianna Imprialou, Head of Data Science at Supermetrics
Stanislava Trajlov, Head of Data, Vhi
European Innovation Hub Track Roundtable Moderators:
Liam Cronin, Director of Innovation, University College Dublin
Jean Arnaud, Director of AI Programmes, ESMT Berlin
Niamh Collins, Centre Director, The Guinness Enterprise Centre
Eoghan Powell, Innovation Centre Director, WorkIQ
Ronan Cunningham, Director, DCU:Innovate
A Proven Model: London AI Startup Conference
The London AI Startup Conference 2025 was a highly successful event hosted at Google London, with 127 attendees chosen from 2,300 applications. Audience curation resulted in feedback of nearly 5/5, and a 2026 sequel has already been confirmed. As a Dublin company we are eager to bring this model to Ireland.
Our speakers included Unicorn Founders, VCs, and more:
Esha Vasta, Partner at Mercuri
Angela Chou, Investor at Felix Capital
Lucile Cornet, Partner at Eight Roads
Edward Keelan, Partner at Octopus Ventures
Razvan Ranca, Co-Founder & CTO of Tractable
Emma Burrows, Co-Founder & CTO of Portia AI
Sebastian Hunte, Investment Director at AlbionVC
Barry Downes, Managing Partner at Sure Valley Ventures
Georgina Owens, Former CTO of William Hill International and Playnetic
Dipesh Savani, Chief Venture Capital Officer of The Saudi Investment Bank
The Audience Breakdown
Startup Founders (65): Predominantly UK-based (92%). These founding teams were highly technical, frequently led by CTOs holding PhDs from Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, and UCL.
CTOs & Tech Leaders (23): Top-tier technical minds shaping the future of European tech.
Investors (21): Active VCs and Angel investors, participating both as attendees and roundtable leaders.
Speakers & Moderators (14): Including exited founders (e.g., Tractable, Portia Labs) and Partners from major funds.
Ecosystem (4): Key representatives from Techstars, Plexal, and the BBC.
Top-Tier Capital Representation A key differentiator of the event was the concentration of capital. Our roundtables were actively led by representatives from some of Europe’s most prestigious funds, including: Octopus Ventures | Felix Capital | Eight Roads | AlbionVC | Mercuri | Sure Valley Ventures | Kindred Capital | Passion Capital | Moonfire | Shell Ventures | S60 Ventures
Deep-Tech & Vertical AI Focus The startups in the room heavily indexed toward Vertical AI (AI built for specific, complex industries) rather than general-purpose tools. The strongest clusters included:
Legal & Compliance Tech
Robotics & Physical AI
Real Estate & Climate Tech
Healthcare & Frontline AI
Founder Fundraising Stage: Predominantly Pre-Seed to Seed, with select companies looking toward Series A.
Active Raises: 58% of attending founders were currently raising capital, providing deal flow for attending investors.
About Startup Network Europe
Startup Network Europe is an Irish Company that has hosted over 280 Corporate, Mid-Market, and Startup Conferences across 50 European Cities since 2021. Their most notable events include:
The Dublin AI Conference 2026 (evening event)
The European Chief Product Officer Conference 2026 (full-day event)
The London AI Startup Conference 2025 (full-day event at Google’s London HQ)
The European AI Conference 2024 (full-day event at Google’s EMEA HQ)
The London Chief Product Officer Conference 2023 (evening event)
The European Startup Conference 2022 (speakers included Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak)
Previous Speakers at Startup Network Europe Events
Unicorn Founders
Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder, Apple
Sabeer Bhatia, Co-Founder, Hotmail
Joel Perlman, Co-Founder, OakNorth Bank
Razvan Ranca, Co-Founder & CTO, Tractable
Dmitry Gurski, CEO & Co-Founder, Flo Health
James Eddison, Co-Founder, Octopus Energy
Spenser Skates, Co-Founder & CEO, Amplitude
Jan Goetz, Co-Founder, IQM Quantum Computers
Corporate Leaders
Benjamin Faes, CEO, RWS Group
Jörg Koletzki, Chief Information Officer, AerCap
Nathalie Roos, CEO, Lipton Teas and Infusions
Brian McGeough, Chief Information Officer, Creditsafe
Dr. Ingo Stürmer, CTO, Volvo Autonomous Solutions
Peter Wanda, CDAO Shared Services, Zurich Insurance
Katarzyna Stoltmann, Head of Data Science & AI, AstraZeneca
Louise Dennehy, Chief Information Officer, Central Bank of Ireland
Susie O'Donoghue, Global Head of Data & AI, William Grant & Sons
Political & Ecosystem Leaders
Minister Emer Higgins T.D.
Roxanne Varza, Director, STATION F
Lord Mayor of Dublin Councillor Ray McAdam
Gerard de Graaf, EU Ambassador to Silicon Valley
Brigitte Baumann Gervais, President Emeritus, EBAN
Neeta Patel CBE, CEO, The Centre for Entrepreneurs
Gilles Babinet, Co-Chair, The National Digital Council of France
Markus Blume, Bavarian Minister of Sciences and the Arts, Member of the Bavarian State Parliament
Product Leaders
Rhiannon White, Chief Product Officer, Clue
Marija Nakevska, Chief Product Officer, Pleo
Piero Sierra, Chief Product Officer, Skyscanner
James Colgan, Chief Product Officer, Spendesk
Katya Denike, Chief Product Officer, Holland & Barrett
For more information on SNE, please visit our website:
Contact
For any questions on this event, please reach out to:
adam@startupnetwork.eu