HELSINKI : Tech entrepreneurs and investors will meet in Finland on Wednesday at Slush, one of Europe’s biggest startup events, focusing on whether funding conditions will ease, the impact of Donald Trump’s election victory and the prospects for AI-driven growth.

Slush, which takes its name from November’s Finnish weather, gives venture capitalists and startup founders an opportunity to compare notes to see if funding can buck the trend of three years of slowdown and if companies like Klarna and Revolut can keep up. IPOs.

“Looking ahead, there are reasons for cautious optimism. AI continues to attract significant investment – nearly $40 billion globally by 2023 – showing confidence in its transformative potential,” Slush CEO Aino Bergius told Reuters ahead of the event, which will be attended by 13,000 people.

One of Europe’s largest venture capital firms Index said the two-day event came “on a streak of optimism” in European technology, driven by investment in AI.

“There is a lot of capital in the market, and we can feel that it is being actively used,” said Anastasija Plotnikova, CEO of crypto startup Fideum.

Meanwhile, some of the startups that went to the event were more cautious about a turnaround.

“While I hope to see some stabilization of funding conditions next year, I remain cautious,” said Mathilda Strom, founding chief operating officer of Bioptimus, a company developing a basic model for biology, citing economic uncertainty and higher interest rates.

Funding for emerging technology companies in 2024 will have declined for the third consecutive year, but a window for new listings is reopening, venture capital firm Atomico said in its industry report on Tuesday.

But Francesco Ricciuti, a deeptech VC investor, at Runa Capital, said the fallout from the US election could have a negative impact on the industry if Trump’s promise to impose potentially hefty tariffs on a range of goods materialises.

“Tariffs will play a critical role because supply chains in many technology sectors are deeply interconnected and fragile,” Ricciuti said.