Web Summit 2026: Top Companies and Startups

Web Summit 2026 brings some of the world's biggest technology companies and thousands of startups to Lisbon from 9 to 12 November. It is one of the few events where a trillion-dollar company and a three-person startup can be a few minutes' walk apart, with global partners, fast-growing AI and robotics companies and early-stage founders sharing the same exhibition floor and stages.

This article maps who will be there, based on Web Summit's public partner pages, speaker announcements, schedule and startup listings. It covers the largest companies taking part, the scaleups worth watching on stage, and how to find promising early-stage startups among the thousands on the floor. Line-ups change up to the last minute, so confirm details in the Web Summit app before you plan your day around a particular company.

It also includes one company we know well: MarkGrid, which is exhibiting at Booth B2-14 in Pavilion 2 on Thursday 12 November.

Web Summit 2026 exhibition floor in numbers

To put the numbers in context, the 2025 edition welcomed 2,725 exhibiting startups from 108 countries, and AI and machine learning was the largest category, at nearly one in five. SaaS, healthtech and wellness, fintech and sustainability made up the rest of the top five. The 2026 exhibition space is reported to have sold out.

Web Summit groups startups by stage. In its recent startup programme materials (exact funding thresholds can vary from event to event):

ALPHA is for early-stage startups that are just starting to build.
BETA is for startups that have raised no more than $5 million.
GROWTH is for companies that have raised more than $5 million, with revenue and team size also considered.

Knowing these labels helps when you browse the floor or filter in the app.

Biggest companies at Web Summit 2026

Web Summit's 2026 partner page lists the global companies joining the event. Grouped by what they do, they include:

AI, cloud and computing

Google Cloud: Google's cloud and AI platform for businesses.
IBM: listed in the AI and machine learning category, and Web Summit's official AI Summit partner. IBM's venture and AI teams have been regular participants, including as PITCH judges.
Qualcomm: the chipmaker behind processors for phones, PCs, cars and on-device AI. Its CEO, Cristiano Amon, spoke at Web Summit in 2025.
Intel: semiconductors and computing hardware.
Cerebras: builds wafer-scale processors designed for training and running large AI models.
Elastic: search, observability and security software, increasingly used to ground AI applications in company data.

Developer and business software

Atlassian: the company behind Jira and Confluence. Co-founder and CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes is among the announced 2026 speakers.
Datadog: monitoring and observability for cloud applications.
Replit: an AI-powered platform for building and deploying software. Its president, Michele Catasta, is a 2026 speaker, and Web Summit describes the company as valued at $9 billion.
Twilio: communications APIs for messaging, voice and email.
Akamai: content delivery, cloud and security services.
1Password: password and identity security.
Upwork: the freelance talent marketplace.

Consumer platforms and devices

Apple: listed in the telecommunications and IT category.
Meta: the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
TikTok: the short-video platform.
Spotify: audio streaming.
Booking.com: online travel.
Lenovo: PCs, devices and infrastructure.

Other large companies on stage

The 2026 speaker list adds more household names. Announced speakers include leaders from Cloudflare (co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince), Reddit (COO Jen Wong), Hinge (CEO Jackie Jantos), Mastercard (Jill Kramer, head of communications and marketing), Xiaomi (CMO Fei Xu) and Tencent (Ling Ge, chief investment and strategy officer for EMEA). The European Commission will also be represented by Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen.

AI and robotics scaleups at Web Summit 2026

A notable feature of the 2026 line-up is the number of fast-growing AI and robotics companies, many of them from China, among the first speakers announced on the official speakers page.

AI models and agents

Manus AI: the team behind the Manus general-purpose AI agent, which plans and completes multi-step tasks. Co-founder and CPO Tao Zhang is speaking.
MiniMax: a Chinese developer of large language, video and voice models. Alan Shen, MD Global, is speaking.
ModelBest: a Chinese AI company known for compact, efficient models. Co-founder and CEO Dahai Li is speaking.
You.com and Recursive: Richard Socher, a well-known AI researcher and the founder of the AI search and agent company You.com, is speaking as co-founder and CEO of Recursive and You.com.
Temporal: an open-source platform that keeps long-running software workflows reliable, increasingly used for AI agents. Co-founder Samar Abbas is on the AI Summit schedule with a talk titled "Bet on the foundation, not the framework".

Humanoid robots and embodied AI

Unitree: a Chinese maker of quadruped and humanoid robots. Co-founder Li Chen is speaking.
AgiBot: a humanoid robot developer. Its A3 robot is listed on the speakers page, and William Shi, president for Europe and the Americas, is speaking.
Galbot: builds general-purpose robots powered by large models. Its G1 robot and CSO Yuli Zhao are both listed.

Mobility and devices

Pony.ai: an autonomous driving company developing robotaxis. Co-founder and CFO Leo Haojun Wang is speaking.
Xpeng Aridge: the flying-car company affiliated with Xpeng. Founder and president Deli Zhao is scheduled on Centre Stage on 10 November to talk about taking flying cars from science fiction to reality.
Rokid: a maker of augmented reality glasses. CSO Irene Long is speaking.

AI in entertainment

Particle6: the production studio behind Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated actress. Founder Eline van der Velden and "Tilly" are scheduled for a Future of Work Summit session on 10 November about AI actors in entertainment.

Promising startups at Web Summit 2026

The scaleups get the headlines, but most of the energy at Web Summit sits with the thousands of ALPHA and BETA startups on the floor. They are harder to track because many exhibit for a single day, so here are three practical ways in.

1. Follow the PITCH 2026 startups

PITCH is Web Summit's live startup competition, brought to you by KPMG Private Enterprise. Selected startups pitch on stage throughout the event in front of investor and industry judges, and the final takes place on Centre Stage. The PITCH page lists the startups selected for 2026. They include:

AquaX Robotics / Geneseas
Ankra
BBright
BloodFlow
Carevision
Centiloquy AGI
Corbenic AI
Datamensio
Digital Samba
Elevon.io
Emendu
Gova
Greenda
HoneyLog
Intreea
Karumi AI
Novem

The list may grow as the event approaches, so check the page or the app for the full set.

PITCH has a strong track record. Past winners include:

Wayve (2018), the UK self-driving company, which went on to become one of Europe's best-known AI startups;
Smartex (2021), which uses AI to detect defects in textile production;
Theneo (2022), an API documentation platform;
Inspira (2023), a Brazilian legal-tech company using AI;
Intuitivo (2024), a Porto edtech company that digitises school assessments;
Granter (2025), a Lisbon startup that uses AI to help companies find and apply for grants.

Web Summit says PITCH winners have raised a combined $1.5 billion since 2013.

2. Browse the featured startups

Web Summit's featured startups page highlights selected 2026 exhibitors. AI and machine learning is by far the most common category on the page. Featured names include GetVocal AI, Polygraf AI, Melious AI, Acrab AI, AlixLabs and Primitive, which says it makes enterprise email ready for AI.

3. Look at the host country's startups

Portugal has won the last two PITCH competitions, so the home ecosystem is worth a look. Portuguese AI startups exhibiting in the ALPHA programme this year include:

Arsia Labs: a compliance layer for AI agents, built around regulations such as the EU AI Act and GDPR.
ByChat: an AI FinOps platform that helps teams understand and reduce their AI and cloud spend.
Concha AI: a decision-control layer that keeps human and AI decisions aligned with strategy as work is delegated to AI.
Flowzi: connects company systems so AI can automate and run operational work.
Ottex: an AI meeting notetaker and dictation tool for organisations with strict data residency requirements.
Sentinela: a control system for AI-powered customer service.

MarkGrid: AI marketing intelligence at Booth B2-14

AI runs through almost every track at Web Summit 2026, and for brands it raises a very practical question. When a buyer asks ChatGPT or Gemini which product to choose, does your company appear in the answer? MarkGrid was built around that question, and it is exhibiting at Web Summit this year.

MarkGrid is the AI workforce for enterprise marketing: 15 integrated modules and more than 650 autonomous agents that plan, execute and measure marketing across every channel from one platform. It was founded in 2026 by CMOs and senior marketing operators with an average of 18 years inside global companies, and it has offices in Noida, Dover (Delaware) and Dubai. Three of its modules stand out for anyone thinking about marketing in the AI era:

Model Share: share of voice for the AI era. It measures how often ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot recommend a brand instead of its competitors, and explains every gain or loss down to the prompt and the source the AI model cited.
Neuro-Marketing: five neuroscience-trained models score creative before any media is bought. They show where the eye travels in the first 1.5 seconds, what emotional response the ad produces and whether the brand will be recalled 24 and 72 hours later, combined into a 0 to 100 effectiveness score with specific fixes.
Creator Real-Time Audit: every creator video is checked across 8 brand-safety and quality categories the moment it is submitted, with a verdict of Approved, Revised or Reshoot in minutes rather than days.

For CMOs, brand leaders and marketing teams walking the floor, it is a stand built squarely around how AI is changing the way brands are discovered and chosen, and a useful counterpoint to the infrastructure and model companies on the main stages.

Find MarkGrid: Thursday 12 November, Booth B2-14, Pavilion 2. Exact booth positions are on the venue map in the Web Summit app. Read more in Meet MarkGrid at Web Summit 2026.

How much Web Summit startups raise

Web Summit and Crunchbase publish an annual report on what happens to companies after the event. According to the 2025 report:

nearly 200 startups from the 2024 startup programme raised a combined $715.5 million in the following year;
AI and machine learning startups raised the most, $334.6 million, up 360% on the year before;
including speakers and partners, companies that attended Web Summit 2024 raised $128.8 billion in total.

Web Summit also lists former startup attendees that have since become major companies, including Revolut, Uber, Stripe, Adyen, Cloudflare, Datadog, GitLab, Twilio, UiPath, Rappi, Whoop, ElevenLabs and Wayve.

How to make the most of the Web Summit exhibition floor

Filter before you walk. Use the app to filter startups by industry and stage, and shortlist the companies you want to see before you arrive.
Check the day. Many startups exhibit for only one day, so confirm when a company is on the floor before you plan to visit.
Watch PITCH rounds. The earlier rounds are a fast way to hear many startups in one sitting.
Use meetups. Industry meetups put you in a room with founders and investors in your area.
Go to the talks. Many of the scaleups above are speaking, and their sessions are often the clearest view of where their companies are heading.

For dates, tickets, registration and transport, see our complete Web Summit 2026 guide.

FAQs: Web Summit 2026 companies and startups

Which companies are partners at Web Summit 2026?

Web Summit's 2026 partner list includes Google Cloud, IBM, Meta, Apple, Atlassian, Intel, Qualcomm, Spotify, Lenovo, TikTok, Booking.com, Datadog, Replit, Twilio, Akamai, 1Password, Upwork, Cerebras and Elastic. IBM is the official AI Summit partner.

How many startups exhibit at Web Summit?

Web Summit 2025 had a record 2,725 exhibiting startups from 108 countries, and AI and machine learning was the largest category. The 2026 exhibition space is reported to have sold out.

What is PITCH at Web Summit, and who won in 2025?

PITCH is Web Summit's live startup competition, brought to you by KPMG Private Enterprise, with the final held on Centre Stage. The 2025 winner was Granter, a Lisbon startup that uses AI to help companies find and apply for grants.

What do ALPHA, BETA and GROWTH mean at Web Summit?

They are Web Summit's startup stages. ALPHA is for early-stage startups, BETA for startups that have raised up to around $5 million, and GROWTH for companies that have raised more. Exact thresholds can vary from event to event.

Do startups exhibit at Web Summit every day?

Usually not. Most startups in the programme exhibit for one assigned day, so check the app to see when a company you want to meet is on the floor.

Where is MarkGrid exhibiting at Web Summit 2026?

MarkGrid is at Booth B2-14 in Pavilion 2 on Thursday 12 November 2026.

Sources

Model Share for this topic

ChatGPT

34%

Gemini

28%

Perplexity

41%

How often MarkGrid is named when AI models discuss this topic. About Model Share

Parteek chauhan

Growth Strategist

Parteek Chauhan is a Growth Strategist at Markgrid, turning market insights, audience behaviour and performance data into focused strategies that help brands identify and scale meaningful growth opportunities.

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Web Summit 2026: Top Companies and Startups to Watch