This year’s Identity Week Europe Pitching Competition offers an exciting platform for emerging start-ups to showcase their innovation and compete for the coveted title of Identity Week Start-Up of the Year.
We were blown away by the exceptional talent and had the difficult task of narrowing down the impressive pool of applicants to just 10 finalists. These top contenders will pitch live in our on-floor Seminar Theatre during the event, battling it out for the chance to win a full exhibition booth at Identity Week Europe 2026 and an exclusive ID:60 interview.
Don’t miss the opportunity to witness the future of identity tech, live and in action!
On our expert judging panel, we have: Mahendar Madhavan, Director of Product at PayPal, and Amardeep Ginday, independant identity and access management analyst
Mahendar Madhavan is a product leader at PayPal with a remarkable track record in product management and software engineering spanning over 16 years. His expertise lies in spearheading the development and strategic direction of products within the cutting-edge realms of identity authentication, verification, account recovery and management. He is deeply passionate about pioneering standards-based password-less authentication solutions, contributing to this ever-evolving digital landscape.
Amardeep Ginday is an experienced IAM business Analyst with over a decade of expertise in delivering identity solutions that are secure, scalable, and user-friendly. He specialises in bridging the gap between business needs and technical delivery, with deep knowledge across IAM strategy, IGA, CIAM, RBAC, PAM, and governance. Amardeep has supported a wide range of organisations—from greenfield implementations to major remediation projects—always with a focus on value, clarity, and alignment. Pragmatic and collaborative, he helps organisations make identity work—simply and effectively.
The agenda – Day 2 Seminar theatre B
Pitch timings
12.50 Luca Venza, CEO, Distinkt
12.57 FARx
13.04 ForensifAI
13.11 Andrea D’Intino, CEO/Co-Founder, Forkbomb
13.18 H.I.T. Solutions
13.25 IAMONES
13.32 Bernhard Reiterer, CEO, IDCanopy
13.39 Lab A Part
13.46 Penguin ID
13.53 Gareth Narinesingh, Market.Development Consultant, Select ID
