The finalists come from the EcoTech, Space, Tech4Life, and creative industries sectors. The judges will thus evaluate, side by side, laser drone charging, artificial intelligence for drug development, an adaptive platform for teaching math, and nuclear energy sources for space, seeking out the projects with the greatest potential to succeed in the market. In addition to the top three spots, they will also decide the Jury Prize, which includes a trip to the Meet Taipei Startup Festival. We’re introducing all twelve finalists in the article “TOP 12 Startups for #demoday 2026.”
Who will decide the winners? A panel of six judges, each of whom views the startups from a different perspective. Marcel Fejtek will provide the perspective of the competition’s main partner, Y SOFT Hardware. Šimon Trčka will evaluate the finalists on behalf of the organizer: the CzechInvest agency, under which the Technology Incubation program operates. Vincent Tseng is coming as a representative of the Meet Taipei Festival, and he’ll see one of the finalists again in November—the winner of the Jury Prize will be flying there. The investor perspective will be provided by Václav Gregor from Pruvn Accelerator, angel investor Petr Sochora, and Jan Korous from the Tilia Impact Ventures fund. It won’t be easy to convince all six of them.
Marcel Fejtek
Y SOFT Hardware
Václav Gregor
Pruvn Accelerator
Petr Sochora
Angel Investor
Jan Korous
Tilia Impact Ventures
Vincent Tseng
Meet Taipei / Bnext Media Group
Šimon Trčka
CzechInvest
The competition is supported by a number of prominent partners and technology leaders. Winners will receive cash prizes, service packages, mentoring, and the opportunity to participate in a study tour to Taiwan.
● The top prizes for 1st through 3rd place are sponsored by Y SOFT HARDWARE, UOL, BrandCloud, Zemek Legal a Startup Kitchen. In addition, the winner will advance to the Pitch & Cheers competition at Tech Happy Hours 2026.
● Special prices from technology partners include VeQtor (30,000 CZK and expert mentoring) and Prusa Research (A Prusa CORE One+ Gen 2 3D printer valued at 32,990 CZK).
● Google for Startups | Google Cloud provides technical support and credits for cloud services.
● JIC Innovation Agency The Jury Prize includes a consultation with Honza Mayer. Along with this prize, the winner will receive a mission to Meet Taipei Startup Festival (November 19–21, 2026) with travel expenses covered.
#demoday and the Tech Happy Hours conferences are part of the Czech Startup Week initiative. This initiative brings together all the key events of the Czech startup ecosystem into a single week that showcases the best of what’s currently driving the world of innovation. It features inspiring talks, panel discussions, workshops, pitch sessions for investors, networking opportunities, and much more.
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