November 28, 2026, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Iași
On November 28, Iași becomes, for one day, the stage where the city’s young people present the AI solutions they’ve built for real community problems — traffic, food waste, carbon footprint, local business visibility — in front of investors, IT companies, and the local press.
The event, called Iași Pitch Day, is organized by Asociația Mark AI Integrator (Holistic Mark Club), in partnership with RoExpert.Solutions, as a natural continuation of the Edu-AI Iași: Young People Innovating the City of the Future program.
From the Caravan to Pitch Day: a three-month journey
It all started with Caravana AI, hands-on sessions held in high schools and universities across Iași, where young people got their first real contact with applied artificial intelligence. Next came the AI Iași Hackathon, 48 hours of intensive building on October 16–18, 2026, in mixed teams of high schoolers, students, and industry mentors. That stage wrapped up with Demo Day, on November 14, when the projects were presented and refined.
This first part of the program is fully funded through StartONG by Kaufland (implemented by Act for Tomorrow), with no participation fees for young people and no need for additional sponsors — StartONG fully covers the Caravan, the Hackathon, and Demo Day.
Iași Pitch Day is the next step: a standalone event, organized independently by Mark AI Integrator, dedicated entirely to celebrating the winners and connecting them with Iași’s business and investor community.
What happens on November 28
The day is structured in two parts:
- 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM — pitches from the 10 finalist projects from the AI Iași Hackathon
- 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM — lunch break
- 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM — pitches from another 10 independent startups (outside the hackathon), presenting their ideas to the same audience of investors
- 5:00 PM — awards ceremony for the Hackathon projects: Grand Trophy, 2nd Prize, 3rd Prize, and special categories
- 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM — dinner with sponsors and investors
The proposed venue is the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Iași, with around 120 participants expected, in a hybrid format — in person and online — so that investors from outside the city can follow the pitch sessions remotely.
Why it matters
The projects born out of the Hackathon aren’t theoretical exercises. Young people worked on concrete problems facing Iași — an AI assistant to reduce food waste in school cafeterias, solutions to ease traffic flow, tools to reduce carbon footprint, or to boost the visibility of local businesses. At Pitch Day, these solutions leave the classroom and enter direct conversation with people who can decide whether and how they move forward.
For the 10 independent startups invited to join, the event is an opportunity for visibility and investor connections, in a setting dedicated specifically to Iași’s tech ecosystem.
An ecosystem that’s already built, not improvised
Iași Pitch Day is backed by a network of partners already involved in the Edu-AI Iași program: the Faculty of Computer Science at „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, the University of Life Sciences, Apollonia University, the Iași County School Inspectorate, the Iași City Hall and County Council, alongside media partners such as IasiTVLife, Ziarul de Iași, Radio Viva, and Radio Hit.
The partner list remains open — organizers continue to invite companies and investors from Iași to join, whether by sponsoring an award or through a partnership package with visibility in the room, online, and in the press.
The next step for the program
Iași Pitch Day isn’t the end of the story. The Edu-AI Iași program continues into 2027 with the Summit AI Iași (April 17–18), a large-scale event for the AI ecosystem, followed by an AI Acceleration Program (April–June 2027), which will take the most promising projects further, toward real funding and implementation.