Plug and Play Tirana Expo 2026: Silicon Valley meets Balkans [Sponsored]
Tech.eu Tech.eu Editorial Team
Plug and Play Tirana Expo is back in October with startups, investors and big-company names in Tirana. It’s meant to turn the Balkans into a real stop on the European capital map.
Based on reporting by Tech.eu, Tech.eu Editorial Team — read the original for the full story.
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Plug and Play is bringing its Tirana Expo back to the Pyramid of Tirana on October 7–8, 2026. The event is the capstone for the second Plug and Play Tirana Accelerator Programme, and it’s being pitched as a bridge between Albania, the wider Western Balkans and the international money and expertise that startups usually have to chase abroad.
The guest list is broad and deliberately international. People are coming from across Europe, Silicon Valley and the wider Plug and Play network, with attendees listed from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Croatia and Türkiye. The lineup also includes names tied to Microsoft, Daimler Truck, IFC, KPMG, Intesa Sanpaolo and a string of venture firms and networks.
Some of the confirmed participants are Jeff Burton, co-founder of Electronic Arts; Jackie Hernandez of Plug and Play; Fatos Ismali of Microsoft; Aditya Kathpalia of Orbit Startups; Max Gurvits of Vitosha Venture Partners; Ekaterina Gianelli of Storm Ventures; Julien Coustaury of Fil Rouge Capital; Alexandra Lazar of Elevator Ventures; Raymond Chow of Daimler Truck; Sheila Gemin of KPMG; Mikael Kretz of QGroup; and Matthias Timm of IFC. That’s the point of the whole thing: put regional founders in the same room as people who can fund them, hire them, partner with them, or open markets.
The programme is built around the Batch 2 startup pitches, plus keynotes, investor sessions, corporate panels and networking. The tracks cover HealthTech & Wellness, ConTech, DesignTech & Logistics, Marketplaces, E-commerce & Mobility, DeepTech, GovTech & Public Safety, and AI-powered B2B SaaS & Enterprise. In other words, it’s not a single-theme conference. It’s a sampler of where European startup attention is going right now.
One session, titled “From Acceleration to Scale: What CEE & European VCs Actually Look For,” brings together Storm Ventures, Vitosha Venture Partners, Elevator Ventures and Earlybird to talk about what founders need to show as they move from acceleration to international scale. The wider message is simple: Tirana wants more than applause for local startups. It wants repeated contact with capital, corporations and the global Plug and Play machine, and it wants that contact to stick.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the kind of event that actually matters in Europe’s startup scene: not another panel about “ecosystems,” but a room full of founders, investors and corporate buyers who can make deals. The Balkans do not need more branding exercises; they need repeated access to people who write checks, open pilots and move product. Fancy that, a conference with a purpose.
Read more about this at: Tech.eu
