Startup Disrupt

Cybersecurity is no longer an IT department issue.
It is a boardroom responsibility.

At Innovations United 2026, Tomas Scerba, Zuzana Svecova and Jiří Račman discussed the new reality of cyber resilience.

The question is no longer:
Will we be attacked?

The real questions are:
👉 Do we understand our critical assets?
👉 Do we know where our vulnerabilities are?
👉 Can we detect an attack early enough?
👉 Can we continue operating when part of the system fails?
👉 Can leadership make decisions under pressure?

The discussion also covered the implications of NIS2, the growing role of AI in cyberattacks and defense, the importance of cloud infrastructure and the emerging relevance of post-quantum cryptography.

One practical message stood out from this amazing panel:

✅ Make a plan.
Then test whether that plan actually works.

Where can Europe actually win in AI? 🤔
That was one of the central questions at Innovations United 2026.

The answer is not simple.
Europe is not going to win by copying the United States or China.

The US model is driven by private capital, frontier models and speed.
China is focused on deployment, industrial applications and technological self-sufficiency.

Europe has a different opportunity.

It can build AI that is more trusted, more domain-specific and more deeply integrated into industries where Europe already has strong expertise.

Several ideas from the discussion stood out:

⭐ Clarity comes before implementation. As Andrei Petreanu pointed out, many organizations still lack the vocabulary to define what they actually want to build. Without a clear use case, AI remains a buzzword.

⭐ Europe needs to stop undervaluing its own talent. Ivan Valev highlighted the strength of Central and Eastern European talent and the need to move beyond the outdated narrative of the region as merely a source of affordable labor.

⭐ Go vertical. Nataliya Grimberg emphasized that the competitive edge will not come from using more generic AI tools, but from building industry-specific intelligence layers around proprietary data and workflows.

⭐ Europe can develop a more human-centered version of AI. Dr. Kim J. Zietlow brought the perspective of the US-China technology rivalry and the role Europe can play through standards, trust and responsible adoption.

⭐ Public institutions also need to move from experimentation to implementation.
Daniel Mazur shared examples of how AI can already support city administration and innovation policy.

The panel was moderated by Karla Pešek Mateo.

Europe may not be the loudest player in the AI race.
But it can still become one of the deepest.

Innovations United 2026 is behind us.

This year, we attracted 890 registrations across a programme connecting artificial intelligence, the future of communication, defense, resilience, female leadership, sustainability and startup investment.

At Martinic Palace in the Prague Castle area, founders, executives, policymakers, investors and innovators came together around one central question:

How do we build a more innovative, resilient and human-centered future?

The programme opened with welcome speeches by Karel Havlíček and Daniel Mazur.

Throughout the day, we moved from AI and cybersecurity to sustainable mobility, crisis preparedness and the future of communication.

A special thank you to Stacy Quackenbush, who guided the audience through the programme with energy, precision and a strong sense of connection between the individual topics.

The day concluded with the Venture Club Disrupt Awards, where five selected startups pitched their solutions in front of investors and industry leaders.

Congratulations to Marek Miltner 🇨🇿🇺🇦 and Pangea.ai, named Disruptor of the Year 2026.

Thank you to all speakers, partners and guests who made the event possible.

This was not only a conference. It was a reminder that the future does not simply happen to us. We design it, test it and build it together.

See you next year.

🏆 The winner of Venture Club Disrupt Awards 2026 is PangeAI

During an evening full of ambitious pitches, five selected startups presented their solutions to investors, partners and guests at Martinic Palace in the Prague Castle area.

The title Disruptor of the Year 2026 went to PangeAI, a startup developing AI agents for geospatial data analysis and risk management.

Its technology can help organisations analyse flood risks, infrastructure, property portfolios and other real-world data more efficiently.

PangeAI will now move forward to the next stage of Venture Club’s investment-review process, which may lead to an investment of up to €1 million, following a detailed presentation and due diligence.

The final ranking:

🥇 PangeAI
🥈 NanoFlexion
🥉 DeepMedChem

A big congratulations also to CoinGarage and Treetino, who joined the final pitch night after being selected from more than 50 submitted projects.

Thank you to all founders, jury members, partners and guests who made the evening possible.

Read more about the finalists and the winning project: https://startupdisrupt.com/pangeai-wins-venture-club-disrupt-awards-2026-and-advances-to-the-next-stage-of-a-potential-investment-of-up-to-e1-million/

PangeAI Wins Venture Club Disrupt Awards 2026 and Advances to the Next Stage of a Potential Investment of up to €1 Million | Startup Disrupt Five startups. Five ambitious solutions. One winner.