Slush 2026 guide: tickets, prices and how to prepare

Slush 2026 takes place on Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 November 2026 at Messukeskus, the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre, at Messuaukio 1 in Helsinki. 2 The day before, Tuesday 17 November, is Day 0: Slush runs an Investor Day and a separate programme for founders, and both need their own registration. 2 3

Slush publishes its own headline numbers. The first three below are on its home page and the fourth is on its volunteer page. 1 10

Slush also says that 76% of Slush 2026 attendees are startups or investors and that startups from more than 70 countries attend. 1 Its investor page puts the assets under management represented at the event at more than $4 trillion. 3

There are four paid passes. The prices below include 13.5% VAT. 1 Who each pass is for comes from Slush's FAQ. 2 Journalists apply for media accreditation separately. 11

Three rules matter before you pay. Each team member needs their own ticket. All tickets are non-refundable, although a ticket can be reassigned to another person as long as the badge has not been printed. And Slush's FAQ says it gives no discounts outside its ticket campaigns; the €100 reduction for solo GPs and angel investors is the one shown with the Investor pass. 1 2

A Startup or Investor pass cannot simply be bought. Slush first asks you to register your company through an application, which its team reviews, so that a Startup badge is worn only by an actual young, growth-oriented technology company. 1 2 The FAQ gives the review time as two working days. Ecosystem and Thursday passes are open to anyone to buy, but the buyer has to be part of a company profile. 2

For a startup the test has three parts: the company was founded in 2016 or later, it has not been exited, and it is not an agency or a consultancy. 2 Once the profile is accepted, each person attending buys their own ticket. 2

Two practical points. If you need a visa, Slush can provide an invitation letter once you hold a purchased or assigned ticket; its FAQ gives tickets@slush.org as the contact. And you need valid ID to collect your badge. 2

Several of the things founders ask about every autumn closed weeks ago. This is the position on 4 October 2026.

Sources for the table: passes 1, booths and Startup Stage 4, Slush 100 5, RAISE and Investor Lounges 3, volunteering 10, Day 0 2, side events 9.

Meetings are booked before the event through the meeting tool on Slush's platform, which Slush describes as a self-submitted database of the startups and investors attending. 7 A meeting lasts 25 minutes, with a five-minute break before the next one, at a table for up to four people in the Meeting Area. 7 Slush's home page mentions more than 400 meeting tables at the heart of the venue, in a passage that still refers to Slush 2025. 1

The rules that shape how you use it:

• You can have up to 50 meeting requests out at the same time. 7
• A meeting belongs to the person who booked it. A colleague cannot be added to it, but it can be reassigned, and team members can hold separate meetings in the same slot. 7
• Your profile is visible to all attendees, while pitch decks and confidential details are shown only to investors. 7
• Meetings can also be held at company lounges and booths, or at a place you agree in the platform's chat. 8
• Slush's meetings page gives 5 December as the date the tool closes. Parts of that page still carry last year's wording, so check the date nearer the event. 7

Slush's own advice on getting meetings accepted is short. Add a profile picture and a company logo, write a biography with a clear headline, and describe the company in plain terms. Do not send the same message to everyone: say why this meeting makes sense during Slush. 8

The Startup pass also includes access to mentoring and investor office hours. 1 Office hours are 75-minute sessions hosted by venture capital firms. Slush describes speaker mentoring as 30 to 45 minutes of questions and answers and says the session details will be announced in the autumn. 4

Day 0 is 17 November. Investor Day is an investor-only gathering with peer-to-peer roundtables, a venture-focused stage programme and networking. Day 0 for Founders is a series of events with peer-to-peer networking and its own stage programme; it has limited capacity and needs a separate registration on the Slush platform. To register for Investor Day you need a ticket assigned to your profile. 2 3

Slush 100 is the event's pitching competition, and its prize changed this year. The 2026 winner receives €500,000 with no equity taken, which Slush calls the largest equity-free amount in a startup competition. 5 6 From 2022 to 2025, the prize was a €1 million investment from venture capital firms. 6

More than 1,400 startups applied for 2026. Slush selected 100; 20 semi-finalists pitch on the Startup Stage on the morning of Day 1, and three finalists compete for the prize. Slush lists General Catalyst, NEA, Cherry, and ICONIQ as the hosts, and the semi-finalists pitch in front of them. 5 The winner also gets a main stage speaking slot the following year. 6

Slush 2025 was held on 19–20 November 2025, also at Messukeskus. 12 Before that event Slush said it would gather 13,000 founders, investors and media, including 5,500 people from startups and scale-ups, 3,000 investors, 1,700 partners and ecosystem organisations and 250 media representatives. The same page lists 200 speakers and 1,700 volunteers, and says more than 25,000 meetings were expected. 11 These are the organiser's figures from before the event; we have not found a final count published by Slush.

The 2025 Slush 100 was won by Diffraqtion, as Nordic Startup News reported from the final. 15 Diffraqtion is a spin-out from MIT and the University of Maryland that develops quantum camera technology for satellites. In a press release in January 2026 the company said it took first place at Slush 100 from more than 1,000 startups and received a $1.1 million equity prize from Cherry Ventures and General Catalyst. 14

Last year's schedule is a useful guide to how the week runs. In 2025 Investor Day was held at Finlandia Hall and Founders Day at the Cable Factory on the day before the main event. Badges could be collected at Helsinki Airport and at points in the city on the two days before. The venue opened at 8 AM on both days. Day 1 closed at 6 PM, and Day 2 ran on into the afterparty, which lasted until 2 AM. 12 Slush's event information page still showed the 2025 details when we checked on 4 October 2026, so treat these as last year's pattern, not this year's plan.

Messukeskus is in Pasila, near Pasila station, where all local and long-distance trains stop. From Helsinki Airport the I and P trains run to Pasila in about half an hour, about every ten minutes. Tram line 2 ends in front of Messukeskus and tram line 13 connects Pasila station with the Kalasatama metro station. A taxi from the airport takes about 15 minutes. 13

Tickets are not sold on trams, buses or trains. Buy them in the HSL app or from a ticket machine before boarding. 13

This checklist is ours. It follows from the rules above.

1. Now. Apply for the right pass. For a Startup or Investor pass allow for the two working days of review, and remember that every person needs a ticket. 2
2. Five weeks out. Finish your profile: photo, logo, a biography with a clear headline and a plain description of the company. 8
3. Four weeks out. Decide who you want to meet and why. Investors see your pitch deck on the platform; other attendees do not. 7
4. Three weeks out. Send meeting requests written for each recipient. You can keep 50 open at once, so choose them with care. 7 8
5. Two weeks out. Register for Day 0, which has limited places for founders, and choose side events once Slush publishes them. 2 9
6. Slush Week. Bring valid ID for your badge. Meetings run in 25-minute slots with five minutes between them, so leave room to walk. 2 7
7. Afterwards. The meeting tool stays open after the event; Slush's meetings page lists 5 December as its closing date. Use it to follow up while people still remember the conversation. 7

Slush's home page counts more than 600 side events. 1 Partners and the community host them across Helsinki, and there is a Partner Side Event Wing inside the venue as well. 2 9 They range from pitch competitions and industry sessions to investor breakfasts and sauna evenings. Slush says the 2026 signature side events will be announced on its side events page. 9