Rotterdam was buzzing this edition as founders, investors, innovators and ecosystem partners gathered for Upstream Festival 2026. This annual event once again proved why Rotterdam is becoming one of Europe’s most exciting places for startups and scale-ups to grow.

From the very first moment, the energy throughout the festival was unmistakable. A strong founders-first mentality could be felt in every detail. The programme was carefully curated. Conversations were open and engaging. Meaningful connections were made throughout the venue.

The festival opened with an inspiring keynote by Barbara Barend. She is the co-founder of HERA United, the Netherlands’ first independent professional women’s football club. Also is she the co-founder of Helden Magazine. She brought honesty, humour and energy to the stage, setting the tone for a day full of ambition and collaboration.

Throughout the day, conversations focused on some of today’s most urgent and promising themes: climate and energy, health and wellbeing, AI, scaling, funding and collaboration. Founders and investors exchanged ideas, shared challenges and explored opportunities to build the next generation of impactful companies.

One of the highlights of the festival was the Startup Stage and the NL Startup Competition, hosted by Erasmus Enterprise. Startups pitched their ideas in front of a live audience, competing for prize money, visibility and access to Draper University in Silicon Valley.

The speaker line-up reflected the strength and diversity of the Dutch innovation ecosystem, featuring names such as Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau, Matthijs Welle, Melissa Ablett-Jordaan, Vicky Kuang, Siete Hamminga, Koen Burgers, Sophie Heijenberg and Krijn de Nood.

For one day, Upstream Festival truly felt like the founder capital of Europe. A place where ideas, talent and ambition came together to shape the future.

We are proud to be part of the Upstream partner network and contributes to strengthening Rotterdam’s innovation ecosystem.