The Sirocco Energy startup took first place at the IT Arena Startup Competition 2026, receiving the grand prize of $30,000.
The Sirocco Energy startup took first place at the IT Arena Startup Competition 2026, receiving the grand prize of $30,000.
According to AIN, the total prize pool of this year’s Startup Competition was $65,000.
Startup competition winner Sirocco Energy is developing wind turbines with linear blade motion that are designed to produce energy in suburban areas.
Second place and a prize of $20,000 went to the startup Zmiyar, whose team presented the idea of networked smart mine systems with remote activation, real-time condition monitoring, and GPS mapping.
Third place in the startup competition went to the Versi Bionics team, which received $10,000. The startup develops affordable bionic upper limb prostheses that should help users restore hand functionality and independence.
In addition, the Rainbow startup team received $5,000: they are developing an application that helps children develop independence through structured tasks and rewards.
In total, the organizers received 189 applications for participation in the Startup Competition this year, most of them from Ukrainian teams. There were also a large number of startups registered in Estonia and the USA. The largest number of applications came from projects in the areas of Enterprise Software, Health and Defense.
40 startups made it to the semi-finals of the competition. In particular, the semi-finalists included the teams Alatyr Group, Dwarf Engineering, FNAV Systems, Lab418, Lanka, Muteq, SHNEP, and Zmiyar; medical and health tech projects Insulin Without Queue, Klaptyky, Mindship, Mira Life, Tayra.ai, Versi Bionics, and VR Mentality; as well as Sirocco Energy, Delirobo, AiFinPay, BugStream, Malva, Lapathoniia, and other startups.
As dev.ua reported, last year, the $30,000 prize pool at the IT Arena 2025 startup competition was shared by Ukrainian startups Ovul, HEFT, and StackBob.
