His Majesty the King Felipe closes SouthSummit15

 

• S-Biomedic in Healthcare & Biotech, Plactherm in Industrial Revolution, Habitissimo in Digital solutions for mass markets and Imagaa in Tech for big players, winner startups in this gathering on entrepreneurship and innovation, officially closed today by the King.  
•  Nicolás Mora Arias, a 10 year old boy, from State School Luis Buñuel in Alcobendas, lst Prize ‘The next big thing’ for his project Hearing Glasses. 
• 12,500 attendees, 6,300 entrepreneurs, 275 speakers, 650  investors and 3,100 corporations, main figures of South Summit, organized by  Spain Startup, IE Business School and Fundación Incyde, in collaboration with Telefónica Open Future, Endesa, BStartup from Banco Sabadell and Google for Entrepreneurs.

 

“South Summit is an environment that strengthens -and cross-fertilizes- the relations between the so-called startups and investors”. With these words has His Majesty The King Felipe VI  defined this leading gathering of entrepreneurship and innovation attended by more than 12,500 people. In this speech, he has highlighted the “brave step taken by this gathering in broadening its vision and scope towards international markets, in particular Latam and the Mediterranean region”.

The president of Spain Startup, María Benjumea, has thanked the presence of his Majesty at the closing ceremony as well as the “importance and the attention” paid   to the 6,300 entrepreneurs who have gathered at Las Ventas from last 7th October.  She has also acknoledged the work of speakers, partners, investors and volunteers who have taken part in #SouthSummit15 because without them, in her own words, “none of this would have been possible”

Benjumea has reminded the finalists that in the third previous editions of  #SouthSummit15 200 million Euros financing funds have been raised and that  startups such as Job&Talent, Wallapop, Alien Vault or Scytl today are completely positioned on the global map of innnovation. In her opinion, these companies are the best example of the  “new Spain of talent and disruptive technology”. “And this is only the beginning, wait and see”, she has added.

 Four winning startups

During this last day of #SouthSummit15, His Majesty the King presented the winning startups with their awards for the Startup Competition. In its four categories, this gathering awarded acknowlegement to factors such as innovation, viability, scalability and the interest of the selected companies to potential investors.

In the category Healthcare & Biotech, the winner has been the Catalonian startup  S-Biomedic, a project that creates cosmetics that help prevent acne as well as combat relapses. Plactherm has been the winner in the category Industrial Revolution, thanks to an innovative system of smart heating. This Madrilian initiative is based on a system composed of tiles carrying temperature and presence sensors, controlled from the ‘smartphone’ and whose efficiency is 30% higher to its competitors’.

Imagga, a Bulgarian origin startup  focused on API image tagging via an automated system of key words assigmen and which allows for easy and rapid cloud or clients’ personal devices integration has been the winner in the category Tech for big players. Finally, the award in the category Digital solutions for mass markets has been for Habitissimo, a plattform that connects demand and offer in the sector of home improvements and repairs, and based on the Balearic Islands.

Among the many benefits for the winning startups in this edition, there is access to financining and to strategic agreements, better visibility or support to their  internationalization in a gathering that brings together the main actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem: investors, corporations and startups.

So far, the selected initiatives from previous editions in this gathering organized by Spain Startup, IE Business School and Fundación Incyde, in collaboration with Telefónica Open Future, Endesa, BStartup of Banco Sabadell and Google for Entrepreneurs have raised more than 200 millones euros for investment and 5 exits with different leading companies in their respective sectors, as well as various strategic agreeements in the field of innovation with several companies.

During the closing session , his Majesty also presented the Award  ‘The next big thing’ to Nicolás Mora Arias, a 10 year old boy, from State School Luis Buñuel in  Alcobendas. His project ‘Hearing glasses’, involving a pair of glasses with headphones which help improve the quality of life of old people, has been selected has been selected by Fundación Créate, which seeks to promote an entrepreneurial culture from the school.

#SouthSummit15 in figures

The fourth edition of South Summit has gone beyond all forecasts, and during the three days in which the gathering has been held, it has brought together at Las Ventas Bullfighting Ring more that 12,500 attendees, a hundred startup finalists to  the Startup Competition, 6,300 entrepreneurs, 3,100 corporations, 650  investors, 325 journalists and 275 speakers.

This time the differentiating factor has been the presence of important corporations or entities which are actively seeking for innovation, standing out among them, Hispasat, Renfe y Comunica+A, as well as Accenture, Ferrovial, Amadeus, Microsoft, Bankia, BBVA, Institución Educativa SEK, Técnicas Reunidas, Iberdrola, Repsol, BBVA, Sacyr, Coca Cola, Campofrío Interoute or Glamour.

This last edition has also counted with several institutions promoting entrepreneurship, such as Red.es, ICEX, AXIS or la Fundación para el Conocimiento MADRI+D, and the proffesional services provided by Cuatrecasas, DHL y Ontier.

 All photos and videos at:  http://bit.ly/1FUAEvS

 Further information:

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