The third edition of Danish Tech Startups’s Townhall brought together not just startup communities but also people from government and academia. The Townhall was hosted by Stine Kjærsgaard and Esben Gadsbøll, with opening remarks from Eva Hoffmann – brought her perspective as a founder-researcher – where she talks about the developing more startups in Denmark by strengthening collaboration between research and entrepreneurship, and Annemarie Munk Riis, where she emphasis on building the right infrastructure to support collaboration between researchers, startups and established companies.

First Session: A new role for startups

The first conversation of the evening was the discussion about Denmark’s entrepreneurial ambition by Denmark’s Minister of Business and Competitiveness, Martin Lidegaard and Esben Gadsbøll.

The discussion started with Esben pointing out the fact that there was a funding gap between Europe, the United States and China. He also pointed out that although European universities and startups continued to develop new technology, most eventually secured their investment and scale their operation somewhere else. Even in Denmark, although growth capital was available, that did not mean it reached startups in the form of investment.

The minister, Lidegaard acknowledged the problem and highlighted that startups and scale-ups are strategic assets which have the ability to shape the country’s future. He outlined several priorities including improving access to capital, supporting AI and deep-tech development and strengthening the infrastructure. 

Second Session: Investing in the age of AI

The second session shift from talking about national policy to relationships between tech, entrepreneurship, and investment, moderated by Rasmus Møller-Nielsen, CEO and Co-Founder of LAB08 featuring Ken Villum Klausen, Founder of Repodo, and Rolf Pedersen, Founder of True Collective. 

Both discussed their experiences as founders and investors, what it takes to build and finding funding for companies in an increasingly AI-driven business environment. Ken Villum Klausen shared his experience in funding his new company, how even though having succeeded with his previous companies made it easier to gain the trust of investors, his fundraising process revealed the competition in his field.

Rolf Pedersen talked about being an AI-native company should go beyond implementing AI into the product and the used by technical team, instead AI should also be incorporated into the company’s daily operation in and by demonstrating practical AI adoption, it  can help company stand out to investors At the same time he also continued founders not to be so focused on what AI can build and forgetting the fundamentals of entrepreneurship.

A inspiring event and impressive to meet so many other in the startup ecosystem at one and the same place.

Read the entire post here: EVENT REPORT – Townhall 2026 vol. III by Danish Tech Startups