AI Founders Club
Accelerating Europe's next generation of deep tech AI founders.
About the AI Founders Club
The EIT AI Founders Club is a highly selective, founder-first initiative of the EIT AI Community, led by 28Digital. It supports deep-tech AI startups shaping Europe’s future in responsible and high-impact artificial intelligence.
Conceived as a living lab for AI entrepreneurship and innovation, it serves as a platform where Europe’s most promising AI founders co-create their own growth pathways.
The approach is collaborative and adaptive, built on four principles:
- Listening first – understanding each founder’s needs and priorities
- Tailored support – providing personalized mentoring and investor matching
- Founder-to-founder learning – fostering peer exchange and shared growth
- Policy alignment – Compliance with the AI Act and ensuring Trustworthy AI
Why a Club?
Europe’s AI ecosystem is strong in research but lacks founder-focused, tailored support for deep-tech AI startups. The EIT AI Founders Club was created to close this gap and strengthen Europe’s AI innovation capacity.
It rests on three pillars for founder-oriented AI innovation in Europe:
- Tailored support – providing hands-on, context-specific guidance to early-stage founders
- Peer networks – enabling founder-to-founder collaboration as a key growth driver
- Innovation culture – fostering trust, community, and shared learning among AI entrepreneurs
Together, these pillars build a connected, founder-led environment that accelerates collaboration and scalability in European AI.
What do you get?
The Founders Club follows an evidence-based, founder-driven process that evolves through continuous feedback and participation.
- Needs identification – founders share challenges in funding, IP, and scaling through structured feedback
- Tailored support – mentorship, investor sessions, and EU funding guidance adapted to each startup’s trajectory
- Founder-to-founder learning – peer exchanges enable practical insight-sharing and collective problem-solving
- Ecosystem integration – alignment with Horizon Europe, Digital Europe, AI Factories, and private investors ensures strategic continuity across Europe’s innovation landscape
This process ensures every activity remains evidence-based, agile, and designed around real founder needs.
Pilot in Action – 2025 Cohort
The 2025 pilot supported six AI startups:
- Thoughtful Oasis (Netherlands)
- WeavAir (Poland)
- Pandatron AI (Finland)
- Istya (France)
- Artiwise (Turkey)
- Bit&R (Romania)
The pilot demonstrated that deep-tech AI founders thrive in a flexible, trust-based environment where learning is mutual and iterative.
What's next?
Looking ahead, the EIT AI Founders Club will continue to evolve as Europe’s testbed for next-generation founder support, expanding its reach and deepening collaboration across the AI ecosystem.
The initiative aims to scale its impact by engaging more startups, strengthening ecosystem integration, and continuously adapting to emerging needs of AI entrepreneurs.
Contact us
Orestis Trasanidis | orestis.trasanidis@28digital.eu Parul Chaudhary | parul.chaudhary@28digital.eu
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