Luxembourg Venture Days ran on 14 and 15 October at Luxexpo The Box. Ziarul Financiar published, on the night of 18–19 October, a report from the floor: 4,000 founders, investors, lawyers and consultants, in a country of about 500,000 people, with assets ZF put at €8 trillion, or about €27 million per inhabitant.

The attendance figures line up with the organisers. Paperjam, quoting Cécile Lorenzini of Luxinnovation, wrote that the first edition drew about 450 people, 2025 passed 3,400, and 2026 was aiming for about 4,000, half of them from outside Luxembourg. The official site puts the event on the same 14–15 October dates, with more than 330 investors and a curated dealflow.

After Brexit, Luxembourg took a slice of the capital activity allocated to the Union. ZF notes that JP Morgan had moved 40% of the €1.3 trillion in assets earmarked for the EU here. House of Startups, opened by the Chamber of Commerce in 2018 on 6,500 square metres, has hosted more than 600 companies that, on ZF’s figures, raised €700 million. Those are reportage numbers, not a listed-company filing.

On stage, Philippe Linster of House of Startups interviewed Hermann Hauser, co-founder of Amadeus Capital. Hauser spoke of ten unicorns in the portfolio, among them ARM, which he put at the value of Volkswagen and Audi combined. A reader in the hall shot back that these were “just numbers.” Hauser said they were real money. The exchange is from a forum, not an independent valuation of ARM.

Romanians were in the room too. Cosmin Cosma (Finqware) said a start-up has to show up at meetings like this. Cristian Dascălu (ROTSA) brought a delegation. Cristian Negruțiu (Sparkling Capital) is still looking for private investors beside recovery-fund money. Marian Voicu and Iulian Safir presented a veterinary-medicine project using artificial intelligence. Their names appear in ZF’s text, not in a prize citation.

Luxembourg wants, in ZF’s telling, to add a start-up base to its role as a financial hub. Luxinnovation and LPEA are co-organisers. Among the 2026 side events was, for the first time, a Defence Investment Forum. Venture money is not investment advice. The report shows a full hall and an ecosystem ambition, not a guarantee that Luxembourg becomes the “heart” of European start-ups.

Image: Tristan Schmurr, Place de l'Europe, Kirchberg, Luxembourg, 2013, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons; the European quarter at night, not the Luxexpo hall in October 2026.

Sources consulted: Report from the EU's new financial heart, Luxembourg - Ziarul Financiar; Luxembourg Venture Days strengthens its European ambitions - Paperjam.