August 31, 2026, Bled. The second Future 500 Forum, held in Bled alongside the Bled Strategic Forum, brought together more than 300 participants and 47 speakers from across Europe, including business leaders, investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers. The Forum focused on one of Europe’s central economic challenges: how to create the conditions for promising companies to grow and scale within Europe.
Discussions examined the factors that continue to constrain European growth companies, from access to capital and talent to market fragmentation, the opportunities offered by emerging regions, and EU enlargement. Alongside the main programme, closed working sessions provided space for more focused exchanges and practical cooperation, including a Slovenia–Germany roundtable.
The Forum also reached a wider audience online. The Slovenian Press Agency’s live stream recorded approximately 6,500 views, with up to 170 viewers following the programme simultaneously.
A key moment of the Forum was the live presentation of Future 100 Slovenia, an initiative identifying Slovenian companies with the potential to become larger European players. More than 203,000 Slovenian companies were screened, of which 603 met the OECD high-growth criterion. From this group, 100 companies were selected for Future 100 Slovenia.
Together, the selected companies generate more than €2.1 billion in annual revenue, representing growth of 112% over three years, and employ approximately 8,100 people. Around 2,400 jobs were added during this period, while median annual revenue growth across the group stands at 30%. Company scores ranged from 49.2 to 83.2 out of 100. Future 100 is designed not as a ranking of winners, but as a data-based map of Slovenian companies demonstrating the growth dynamics and potential to become Europe’s future business champions.
The Future 500 initiative aims to extend this approach beyond Slovenia by identifying and connecting high-growth companies across Europe and bringing together the businesses, investors and institutions needed to support their next stage of development.