Prague Engaged Investments Conference

The international Engaged Investments conference, taking place on October 21 and 22, 2026, is significantly expanding its scope this year.

The event, which brings hundreds of startup investors from all over Europe to Prague, is now fully opening its doors to tech founders and the broader innovation ecosystem.

Alongside the main program, the two-day event will feature two specialized industry tracks focusing on fintech and defense, pitches from up to 80 startups, and an extended accompanying program.

Real defense instead of geopolitical theories

The defense track is being organized in collaboration with the Invest in Bravery initiative, which is deeply involved in the Ukrainian ecosystem, alongside the European EUDIS Matchmaking program for defense and Cassini Matchmaking for space technologies.

A special guest will be Senior Lieutenant Mykyta Puz, Defense Industry Liaison Officer of the Azov Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine. He previously worked in business and AI product management before volunteering for the front lines in 2024.

He will shed light on what a modern army truly and urgently needs from the defense industry. Alongside him, speakers will include Erin Hallock, Managing Partner of the NATO Innovation Fund, a representative of the renowned Ukrainian fund Brave1, and others.

Fintech that solves business, not theory

The UnBundled Fintech track, which will run throughout the second day of the conference, is being prepared by The FinTechers in collaboration with Mastercard. The goal is to connect the traditional banking sector with technology companies and investors. The program will focus on stablecoins and tokenization, operational resilience of banks, liability for fraudulent payments, and the deployment of artificial intelligence in financial services.

In addition to new technologies, it will address what European companies need to grow into global players without relying on American capital and infrastructure.

Speakers will include Michal Vodrážka, Director of the Payment Systems Regulation Division at the Czech National Bank. In a debate with Jiří Raška, Chief Technology Officer of Partners Banka, he’ll raise the question of who takes the hit when a payment ends up in a fraudster’s hands. It’s a timely topic, with mandatory payee verification coming in 2027.

The block dedicated to stablecoins and new financial infrastructure will be opened by Dorothea Ysenburg, Vice President of Global Partnerships for Digital Assets and Blockchain at Mastercard. Maryna Muntian from J.P. Morgan will also present, discussing why Central European banks and investors still lack mutual trust when looking at the same deals.

A place where startups find real investors

Closing investments is one of the core components of the conference, which last year attracted investors from more than 20 countries. Up to 80 selected startups, ranging from early-stage to Series A, will have the opportunity to pitch their companies in three minutes to investors actively investing in their respective segments. This year will introduce new dedicated pitching blocks for startups in the fields of financial technology, defense, and space.

On October 22, the best fintech projects from the two-day “Coding the Future of Finance” hackathon—organized on October 19 and 20 by The FinTechers together with Deloitte, AWS, and other partners—will also be presented to investors.