Sustainable colourants startup Lite-1 wins Web Summit’s first-ever all-female PITCH final

30 May 2025; Roya Aghighi, CEO & Co-Founder, Lite-1, right, is presented the Pitch winners trophy by Tanis Jorge, Founder, The Cofounder’s Hub, on centre stage during day three of Web Summit Vancouver 2025 at Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, Canada. Photo by Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile

Lite-1 has been named the winner of Web Summit Vancouver’s first PITCH competition, which brings together early-stage startups from around the world to pitch on Centre Stage.

Co-founded by Roya Aghighi Canadian startup Lite-1 mission is to create sustainable, bio-based colorants using microorganisms, replacing toxic dyes to protect the planet and promote human health. 

For the first time in Web Summit’s history, all three startups that reached the Centre Stage – Vodasafe, Lite-1, and Glüxkind – final were co-founded by women. Their success in seeing off hundreds of startups to take the coveted prize reflects both the growing impact of female founders across the ecosystem, and Web Summit’s ongoing focus on diversity in tech.

Speaking ahead of her PITCH final presentation, the founder of Lite 1 said: “I see us really shrinking the market of synthetic dyes, mainly because of the way how we are approaching it that can plug into any industry that uses colors in their materials. And that’s my mission, to be able to scale it to a level that can make a big impact and capture a good market portion.”

She continued: “PITCH has been really good. It’s not all the time that you get an opportunity to pitch to this many people all at once, and  we’ve had some meaningful conversations with investors right after each pitch. And the public. We still need a little bit more educational aspect around it with the public.” 

Women in Tech 

Web Summit has seen a remarkable rise in women’s participation since launching its  Women in Tech Programme in 2015. Designed to tackle gender inequality, the program is designed to encourage more women to attend and participate, making events more accessible, inclusive, and helping to foster a more diverse and innovative tech industry.

This year, 44 percent of participating startups at Web Summit Vancouver had at least one female founder, reflecting a broader shift towards greater inclusion in tech.

Web Summit Vancouver PITCH winner Lite-1 pioneers sustainable, regenerative colorants made by microorganisms. In an industry where traditional color production is not climate-friendly, their bio-based pigments offer a clean, non-toxic alternative to conventional dyes, eliminating the need for mining and harmful chemicals while supporting environmental and human health.

PITCH as a launchpad for visibility

Web Summit’s PITCH stage is a launchpad for visibility. Winners gain global media attention and credibility with investors. Past winners include Canadian VoxCell, which has raised $17 million since winning Collision’s PITCH competition in 2024. The Victoria-based startup is transforming drug testing through custom-designed tissue models. 

Thousands of startups enlisted in Web Summit’s startup program to compete for the PITCH prize over the three-day event. In the end, Lite-1  beat out two fellow Canadian contenders in the final, Lite-1.

Roya Aghighi Co-Founder and CEO of Lite-1  received the PITCH trophy on Web Summit’s Vancouver Centre Stage to receive the pitch, which was judged by FPV Ventures Co-founder & Managing Partner Wesley Chan, Race Capital General Partner Edith Yeung, and The Co-Founders Hub Founder Tanis Jorge.

Web Summit Vancouver 2025 highlights 

Web Summit has drawn 15,727 attendees from 117 countries to Vancouver, marking a strong debut for the event in the city. A record-breaking 1,108 startups from 64 nations are exhibiting, with nearly half led by women founders. The event showcases a diverse and global mix of talent and innovation, with startups and entrepreneurs from Canada, the US, India, Nigeria, Brazil, and beyond. The strong turnout highlights growing momentum around global tech collaboration in the wake of shifting trade alliances, significantly up from last year’s Collision in Toronto.

A record 50 trade delegations from countries including South Korea, Turkiyë, Ukraine, and Nigeria are attending to explore investment and partnership opportunities. The summit also includes 159 partners like Microsoft, Mastercard, and IBM, 681 investors from top funds such as Thiel Capital and 500 Global, and 550 media professionals covering 345 speakers. 

Media outlets represented include The Financial Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Korea IT Times, China News Service, CTV and Forbes. 

• Read more about the numbers, investors, media, startups, and partners at Web Summit Vancouver here. 

Top talks at Web Summit Vancouver 2025 included:

• Current AI is morally and technically inadequate: professor and AI critic Gary Marcus joined MIT Technology Review Executive Editor Amy Nordrum to argue that today’s large language models fall short on true moral reasoning, calling for deeper reform and stronger regulation.
• The next era of social media: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, who leads the decentralized social media platform challenging Elon Musk’s X, and WIRED Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond joined the talk to explore how open networks could transform social media by giving users more control
• Securing AI’s future: Tailscale CEO Avery Pennarun, Cohere Co-founder Ivan Zhang, and SHIFT Podcast host Jennifer Strong joined the talk, offering a sharp l gan shared personal stories and hard-earned lessons, offering a candid look at the realities behind startup success.

Focus on community

Alongside 88 curated meetups, the event features strong engagement with community partners, Impact Masterclasses, and an Indigenous Attendee Program, furthering its focus on inclusion and long-term relationship-building across borders and communities.

Meeting the right people

Web Summit Vancouver brought together attendees for close to 100 curated meetups that encouraged meaningful dialogue and connections across shared interests. Using its Summit Engine software, the platform matched participants based on industry, expertise, and community background. 

The meetups reflected the wide scope of the tech world, with topics ranging from quantum optimization and AI ethics to entrepreneurship in entertainment, the overlap of music and technology, AI in healthcare, and innovations shaping the gaming industry. Some of the most popular meetups at Web Summit Vancouver brought together key regional communities, startup leaders in AI, and women in tech. A standout moment included a live Q&A with Dr. Cornel West, Professor, Author, and 2024 U.S. Presidential Candidate, offering attendees a chance to engage directly on big-picture issues.

Top meetups at Web Summit Vancouver included: 

• Vancouver Women in Tech
• Founders and CEOs, AI & Machine Learning
• USAT at Web Summit
• China at Web Summit 
•  Q&A with Dr. Cornel West

Web Summit returns to Vancouver in 2026, from May 11 to May 14.