VDS 2026 sets its Valencia agenda: over 600 speakers and 17 unicorns

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VDS, the tech conference run by Startup Valencia, has published the programme for its ninth edition, held on 21 and 22 October at Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences. It runs to more than 200 sessions and 100 hours of content across eight stages, with over 600 speakers, 46% of them from abroad. Nacho Mas, chief executive of Startup Valencia and VDS, said "Valencia is going to lead the next race for tech talent."

The guest list is counted in valuations. Seventeen unicorns will be represented, among them ClickUp, Harvey AI, ElevenLabs, Kraken, Qonto and Preply, alongside more than 20 scaleups such as PLD Space, Luzia, SeQura and Trucksters. The participating start-ups have raised over €26.75 billion between them, and the more than 50 funds and investors attending, including Cathay Innovation, JME Ventures, Kibo Ventures and Antler, manage over €300 billion in assets. That is a lot of capital to fit in one building for two days.

Artificial intelligence, particularly agentic systems, anchors the agenda, with speakers from NVIDIA, IBM, Qualcomm and Read AI. Other tracks cover dual-use technology and defence, neurotechnology, quantum computing, space, logistics and finance. For those who prefer their high performance measured in medals rather than funding rounds, Carl Lewis, footballer César Azpilicueta and former NBA player Víctor Claver will also speak.