Helbling Venture Challenge 2026: Aus rund 50 Bewerbungen zu 5 Finalisten

The final round and the supporting program was a great experience. From the formal presentation and constructive expert feedback—which continued over a relaxed lunch and afternoon — to the easygoing exchanges with the other finalists, the award ceremony was the culmination of a deeply valuable iteration. Right from our initial submission, the remote discussions and insightful feedback from Helbling challenged us to continuously refine our approach and industry interactions. It was precisely this constructive criticism that allowed us to translate our machine learning paradigm from a lab concept into reality.

Johannes Burkard, CTO

The Helbling Venture Challenge gave us something no other program did: technical feedback on the product itself. Most accelerators focus on the business model and the pitch, which is valuable, but the Helbling jury looked at our engineering decisions and at how the system is actually used in the field. That perspective was valuable for both our product development and the user experience. One recommendation from the first session changed how we validate our measurements on site, and that change is part of the product today. This is input we would not have received anywhere else."

Lukas Bircher, Co-Founder and COO

Taking part in HVC26 was a wonderful experience for us at refarm. We appreciated the conversations with the jury and the warm atmosphere at the final. As an early-stage startup, it meant a great deal to see how highly the Helbling team values our idea and concept. Their interest and encouragement gave us confidence for the next steps.

Tomm Wiik, Co-Founder and COO

The Helbling Venture Challenge stood out through its strong technical focus and the depth of the discussions with people who understand what it takes to bring AI into real industrial environments. For us, it was particularly valuable to exchange perspectives on how Physical AI can create measurable impact in manufacturing. At Manukai, we are building AI that captures manufacturing knowledge and uses it to automate and optimize CNC programming. Helbling works with many of the industrial companies that can benefit directly from this technology, so we are especially excited about the opportunity to bring our AI to more manufacturers within the Helbling ecosystem and turn advanced AI research into tangible productivity gains on the shop floor.

Pascal Weber, Co-Founder and CEO