Artificial intelligence is transforming every sector: from healthcare to energy, from manufacturing to creative industries. As Europe seeks to harness this transformation responsibly, the EIT AI Community is taking decisive steps to empower the people behind the algorithms: the founders.
Building a European Home for AI Entrepreneurship
The AI Founders Club, initiated by the EIT AI Community and led by 28Digital, is a unique peer-to-peer and investor-ready programme designed for early-stage European AI start-ups with disruptive, high-risk, high-gain ideas.
Recognised by the European Commission’s “Apply AI Strategy" as a key example of how Europe can strengthen AI entrepreneurship, the Founders Club builds bridges between talent, funding, and impact. It embodies the EU’s ambition to establish an AI Entrepreneurs Lab, connecting brilliant AI graduates and early founders with experienced mentors and investors to accelerate responsible innovation across sectors.
Tailored Support for Founders
Participation in the AI Founders Club comes with a range of highly targeted opportunities that combine business development, investment readiness, and EU funding navigation.
- Investor matchmaking sessions: Startups in the AI Founders Club benefit from targeted investor matchmaking, where each founder meets individually with selected investors for focused, 30-minute conversations. These sessions are designed to provide tailored feedback, sharpen investment pitches, and explore potential funding opportunities, often resulting in valuable introductions and long-term partnerships.
- Funding readiness workshops: The Club regularly organises expert-led sessions to help founders navigate European and international funding landscapes. These workshops guide participants through identifying relevant funding calls, positioning their technology effectively, and improving the quality and success rate of their proposals. Each session combines practical advice, real-life examples, and direct interaction with funding specialists.
- A bridge to Silicon Valley: Through the EIT Hub Silicon Valley, established under the EIT’s Global Outreach program, the AI Founders Club connects Europe’s brightest AI startups with the world’s leading innovation ecosystem. This bridge enables cross-Atlantic collaboration, knowledge exchange, and access to investors, mentors, and partners in the US, supporting the growth of innovative startups from both regions and strengthening Europe’s global position in AI entrepreneurship.
- Founder-to-Founder Exchanges: Interactive peer sessions bring together experienced AI entrepreneurs and emerging founders for open discussions about growth, resilience, and scaling deep-tech ventures. These exchanges offer space for honest insights, practical lessons, and community-driven support, helping founders learn from those who’ve already walked the path.
- Intellectual Property and Policy Guidance: The AI Founders Club equips startups with the knowledge to navigate Europe’s evolving AI landscape. Through expert sessions on topics such as intellectual property protection, regulatory compliance, and ethical AI deployment, founders gain practical insights to safeguard their innovations and align with upcoming EU policies, including dedicated workshops with institutions like the European Union Intellectual Property Office and briefings on new EU AI strategies.
- Visibility and Ecosystem Connection: Members are encouraged and facilitated to participate in major European events, for example Slush (Helsinki) and the upcoming AI Summit 2025 (Brussels) to connect with partners and investors across the continent.
Meet the Founders
Artiwise empowers organisations to build lasting customer relationships through its AI-driven customer experience and Voice of the Customer platform.
By transforming unstructured feedback and behavioural data into actionable insights, Artiwise helps companies understand their audiences, improve satisfaction, and design smarter engagement strategies. Its holistic approach to Customer Experience Management (CXM) supports sustainable growth by aligning data intelligence with human needs and business goals.
Bit&R is an interactive learning platform that empowers kids to learn real coding by creating their own games.
Designed for curious minds aged 10 and up, Bit&R guides children from block-based programming to real code - including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript - all in a safe and engaging online environment. With step-by-step challenges and creative projects, it transforms learning into play, helping young learners build real skills and confidence for tomorrow’s digital world.
Istya combines air quality intelligence with energy optimisation to create healthier and more efficient indoor environments.
By integrating advanced sensors, predictive AI, and real-time monitoring, Istya enables organisations to reduce energy consumption by up to 30% while improving air quality and occupant wellbeing. Its technology bridges sustainability and health, helping buildings perform better for both people and the planet.
Pandatron AI transforms how organisations adopt and sustain change through its AI-powered coaching platform.
By turning new technologies and transformation strategies into daily habits, Pandatron helps teams build genuine buy-in, identify risks early, and accelerate measurable results. Its conversational AI supports large-scale enterprise transformations, AI adoption initiatives, and post-merger integrations, making change management faster, smarter, and more human-centred.
Thoughtful Oasis builds advanced search technology for language-driven industries.
Its ontological vector databases enable interpretable and auditable Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), making AI-powered searches transparent, explainable, and reliable. Unlike standard keyword or semantic search, Thoughtful Oasis helps organisations find meaningful connections even when queries and results use entirely different language, a crucial capability in complex fields such as law, research, and engineering.
WeavAir provides enterprise intelligence software that helps organisations accelerate their sustainability and net-zero goals.
Through its Sustainability-as-a-Service platform, WeavAir enables direct measurement, reporting, and verification of greenhouse gas emissions, supporting effective ESG investment, energy transition implementation, and climate-aligned financing.
Each startup in the AI Founders Club brings a distinct approach to solving pressing global challenges with AI. Together, they represent the diversity and ingenuity of Europe’s AI landscape, from ethical innovation and deep-tech ventures to applied data intelligence.
A European Movement for AI Excellence
Through its collaborative, human-centred approach, the AI Founders Club doesn’t just support startups, it also helps shape the ecosystem that makes them thrive. By aligning entrepreneurial ambition with European values of trust, transparency, and inclusion, the Club ensures that AI made in Europe is not only competitive, but also responsible.
“The AI Founders Club is where Europe’s most promising AI entrepreneurs meet the expertise, capital, and policy context they need to scale,” says Parul Chaudhary, the AI Founders Club lead. “We’re building the foundation for a generation of innovators who will define how AI benefits society as a whole.”
In the coming years, the program will be scaled-up to support more high-potential startups. To learn more or to join upcoming activities, visit ai.eitcommunity.eu/ai-founders-club.
