Being a finalist in South Summit, the main meeting of innovation in Spain, is already a prize in itself. In the ten years that this meeting has been held, the companies that achieve this qualification multiply their turnover by 5.4 times and the employment generated by 2.6.
This is the promising future that the fifteen Catalan companies that have managed to stand out among the 3,000 candidates from 114 countries in this edition of the South Summit, which is being held at L@ N@ve in Madrid between 8 and 10 June.
Brickbro, Citibeatsm, Classlife Education, ColorSensing, Integra Therapeutics, Last.app, Lifecole, Opticks Security, Nemuru, Nextmol, Pangea Aerospace, Parallel, Repscan Technology, Time is Brain and Vitaance are among the 100 finalists who will fight to win over the 1,600 investors, of which 25% are international and 200 investment funds that this year arrive at the South Summit with the largest investment portfolio in the history of this event, almost 187,000 million euros, 33% more than the previous year.
The best news to celebrate the tenth anniversary of a meeting that started, with many predictions against it, in the midst of the 2012 crisis. “Despite the harshness of that crisis, we wanted to commit to a necessary change in mentality. We were convinced that it was time to bet on joining forces to move forward by innovating”, explains María Benjumea, founder of South Summit.
In 2012, 500 visitors and 70 investors passed through what was then called Spain Startup, of which only five were international. In this edition, 32,000 visitors are expected between Madrid and Porto Alegre (Brazil), which will be its second venue, and 8,000 entrepreneurs, in addition to 1,600 investors.
“During this decade we have wanted to enhance the attractiveness for national and international investors in innovative companies from all sectors and make large corporations an active part of the entrepreneurial system, because what works to advance is the sum and collaboration”, says Benjumea with the same enthusiasm as ten years ago.
His satisfaction lies in the numbers he manages. “More than half of the investment in Spanish start-ups this decade has gone to South Summit finalists,” he says. Among them are some of the Spanish unicorns, such as Cabify, finalist in 2014, which raised 457 million; Glovo, which in 2016 obtained 1,600 million; o Wallbox, which in 2017 incorporated 181 million.
