The Innovation Center of the Ústí nad Labem Region (ICUK) is organizing the Festup startup festival for the tenth time and has also been supporting budding entrepreneurs, startup founders and innovators for ten years. ICUK will celebrate its anniversary at the jubilee year of the festival. In the evening, it is preparing presentations of the best startups from the Liberec, Karlovy Vary and Ústí nad Labem Regions to investors.
The Festup startup festival will start on Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. at the Innovation Center of the Ústí nad Labem Region (ICUK). It will bring success stories of entrepreneurs, professional workshops, consultations, and the opportunity to meet and inspire each other.
"Festup is our very first event, which we started organizing shortly after its establishment. This year, we have also newly involved other innovation centers from neighboring regions, because we want to show that we have already achieved a lot in the area of business support and have something to show. ICUK has been supporting startups for ten years, and we have been organizing this festival for ten years. It is logical that we want to show the best startups of recent times,” adds Martin Mata, director of the Innovation Center of the Ústí nad Labem Region, to Festup.
Big names
This year, Festup will welcome some of the biggest names in business and business development. The program will feature performances by, for example: Pavlina Louzenska, founder Holek from marketing, Teplice Ales Burger, founder of HitHit and director of the event agency Next Level, which does events for Red Bull, among others, Martin Vymetal, sales and marketing director of Boomerang Communication, also a visionary, coach and artificial intelligence expert Filip Dřímalka (known e.g. thanks to the book The Future of Unemployment) or Michal Slavev, founder of the Testuj.to platform. In addition, we are also preparing a series workshops, where participants will try out specific tools and approaches that are actually used in business, and business consultations with experts.
"We wanted to create a day that will kick start you. Where you can take away ideas, contacts, motivation and courage to move forward. Festup is an event for everyone who is starting new projects, companies or needs inspiration.",” adds Michal Nejedlý, event manager of ICUK.
Will investors abandon the crown?
The highlight of the day will be the investor pitch, a public presentation of the best startups from the Ústí nad Labem, Liberec and Karlovy Vary regions to investors. Startups will try to attract investors and obtain a possible investment. The nine best startup technology companies, selected for the competition by individual innovation centers from the aforementioned regions, will compete against each other.
"We tried to select the best projects that are at a similar stage of development. The criterion was mainly their quality. That is why I am glad that most of the projects are directly from the Ústí nad Labem region. We also gave the chance to apply directly for the wild card, which was won by the Prague project."," adds Michal Nejedlý, event manager of ICUK.
The competing startups are published on the festival website and include projects ranging from energy to machine diagnostics to the use of artificial intelligence to simplify bureaucracy. And since investment cannot be guaranteed, the winner will receive lucrative media space on CNN Prima News, the startup magazine CzechCrunch, and other media outlets.
ICUK celebrates 10 years
The evening will be moderated by the well-known Ústí nad Labem beatboxer and musician Endru, who will add musical performances during breaks. There will be a short video celebrating the Innovation Center of the Ústí nad Labem Region, a gala dinner, and ICUK also promises a raffle for prizes for visitors.
The Innovation Center of the Ústí nad Labem Region is organizing the Festup festival for the tenth time, bringing over 150 personalities from the business world to it, and more than 3,000 visitors.
The event is held under the auspices of the Governor of the Ústí nad Labem Region, Richard Brabec. The event partners are the Ústí nad Labem Region, Komerční banka, Malfini, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, the Regional Chamber of Commerce of the Ústí nad Labem Region, CzechInvest, the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic. The media partners are CzechCrunch, CNN Prima News, Czechstartup.org, and the Ústí nad Labem Regional Television.
The Festup startup festival is funded by the Smart Accelerator for the Ústí nad Labem Region III project, registration number CZ.02.01.02/00/22_009/0004316.
