Slush 100, EUR 500K equity-free after EUR 1M investments
The 2026 Slush 100 winner will get €500,000 with 0% equity. From 2022 to 2025 the prize was €1 million as an investment from "top VCs", per the Slush newsroom. The finals are part of Slush in Helsinki on 18 and 19 November 2026. Applications closed on 7 September.
- The funnel: more than 1,400 startups applied and 100 were selected. By our arithmetic that is at most about 7%. A jury picks 20 semifinalists (the page also says Wave Ventures will review pitches), who pitch on the Startup Stage on the morning of Day 1. The site names 17 November as Day 0, so we read Day 1 as 18 November. Three finalists then pitch, and one wins.
- The prize: €500,000, equity-free, "no strings attached". Slush calls it 3 to 6 months of free runway for an early-stage startup. The winner also gets a guaranteed main stage speaking slot at Slush 2027.
- For all 100: "€400+ worth of prizes" from Google Cloud, OpenAI, Lovable and Vercel.
- The change: CEO Noora Saksa says "a flat €1M at a fixed valuation and standard terms no longer fits most startups". Slush also says the VC model limited who could take part, and that the new format opens the competition to startups from outside Europe and the US.
Who pays: the prize funder is not named. The newsroom says "Slush is making its biggest bet of the decade" and names no outside funder. The page lists General Catalyst, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Cherry Ventures and ICONIQ as hosts, and says the semifinalists pitch in front of them. It does not say they fund the prize, and the names of the 2022 to 2025 VCs are not given in the newsroom.
The terms document: the Slush 100 page links the Slush General Terms and Conditions, version 8/2025, in force since 30 September 2025. They cover tickets, user accounts, liability and disputes. They do not mention the Slush 100 prize, the selection or any payout.
The track record, by Slush's own timeline: Slush 100 was introduced in 2011 with a €10,000 investment for the winner, then €500,000 as an investment from 2014 to 2021. The page names no past winners.
Not published: the date and time of the finals, how and when the €500,000 is paid and on what conditions, who sits on the jury for the top 20, whether the 100 receive free passes, and who funds the prize.