Last Chance to Join Spotlight 2025: Accelerate Your Business with Global Mentors, Investors, and €180K Funding

Last days for startups to register for Spotlight, part of the How to Web conference: exclusive meetings with global mentors and investors, a chance to win an investment prize of €180,000, and a €15,000 experience in San Francisco at the Startup Embassy hub in Palo Alto.

The flagship program and competition, dedicated to early-stage tech startups from Eastern Europe, will close its applications on September 7th.

Spotlight has a rich history of bringing regional startup founders to the global stage, offering them the opportunity to connect with the right resources to scale their businesses, such as: strategic mentorship from experienced professionals in global tech companies, access to renowned investors, and prizes that can help consolidate and accelerate their business plans.

This year’s edition of the conference features over 200 global investors, from top investment funds such as IVP, Northzone, Creandum, Cherry Ventures, Credo Ventures, Lakestar, SpeedInvest, and many others. These investment funds back tech giants that have reshaped industries like Dropbox, Twitter, Spotify, UiPath, ElevenLabs, and Lovable.

Startups from Eastern Europe are expected to apply to Spotlight 2025. Among the benefits of participating in such a program for early-stage startups are:

• Mentorship sessions with global experts with experience at companies like Google, Bitdefender, PPC, NAP, and more;
• Meetings with renowned investors such as Alexander Agureev (Northzone), Felix Martinez (SeedCamp), Karol Lasota (Inovo VC), Julius de Gruyter (Cherry Ventures), and many others — who gather in our region only during the How to Web conference, providing a unique opportunity for founders to arrange meetings with them;
• Business exposure in front of an audience directly interested in tech products, both on the dedicated startup stage and through expo stands within the conference area;
• A €15,000 package provided by Startup Embassy to work directly from their headquarters in Palo Alto, San Francisco
• A €180,000 investment proposal for the winner of the competition, syndicated by GapMinder Ventures Partners and V7 Capital

Startups can apply for Spotlight 2025 until the end of this week, September 7th. The competition is aimed at tech startups from Eastern Europe with high scalability potential, a stable product with traction, active for up to 5 years, and that have not yet received investments exceeding €700,000. Applications are open on the dedicated How to Web page: https://www.howtoweb.co/spotlight-2025/