Latest news with #SouthSummit
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
The Spanish startup Lain Tech crowned winner of South Summit Madrid 2025
After three days marked by entrepreneurship and innovation, South Summit Madrid 2025, co-organised by IE University, concluded its fourteenth edition with the announcement of the winners of the Startup Competition. Lain Tech, a startup hailing from Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), is revolutionising mining with a sustainable electrochemical process to recover complex metals. The method reduces the carbon footprint by 94% and uses 100% electric energy. At the closing ceremony of the 14th edition of South Summit Madrid 2025, four other startups were also recognised: U.S.-based Bankuish, from Miami, was named 'Most Disruptive'; Chilean Hera Materials was awarded 'Most Sustainable'; and Catalan startups NeuralTrust and Remuner received the titles of 'Most Scalable', and the startup with the 'Best Team,' respectively. During the South Summit 2025 closing event, the award for the South Summit Kids Competition — organised in collaboration with Genyus School — was also presented to Alcaste - Las Fuentes School from Logroño (La Rioja) for its project Smart Cart, an intelligent shopping cart that organises purchases and provides useful product information. Under the theme 'In Motion', the event, co-organised by IE University, brought together more than 600 speakers, 150 investors, and 19 unicorns at La Nave in Madrid from June 4 to 6. The event was backed by the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, the Community of Madrid, and the Madrid City Council, along with sponsors such as Mutua Madrileña, Google for Startups, BBVA Spark, Wayra – Telefónica Innovation, and BStartup from Banco Sabadell. The president and founder of South Summit, María Benjumea, wanted to praise all the participating startups on the last day of the meeting with these words: 'The 100 finalists are champions. We have seen impressive projects these days, you are in charge of revolutionizing the world. You are not the future, you are the now'. Another of the highlights of the closing day was the session 'From Deep Tech Innovation to Scale Up', which was attended by Teresa Riesgo, Secretary General of Innovation of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities; Manuel Escolano, Director of Open Innovation at Ferrovial; Esperanza Torralva, Director of Innovation at Moeves, and Natalia Álvarez, Head of Innovation at Repsol. During the meeting, public and private initiatives to promote technology transfer were presented, from funds such as Invest to open innovation projects or corporate investments in deep tech and sustainability. All the participants in this session agreed that innovation only scales when there is real and sustained collaboration between administration, companies, and knowledge centres. They also wanted to underline the importance of aligning technological developments with industrial and social needs, and of committing to co-creation models that integrate all actors from early stages. South Summit is the global platform that brings together all the actors in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem to promote the development of business opportunities among all of them. Its main event is South Summit Madrid, co-organized by IE University, which has seen more than 42,500 startups pass through its thirteen previous editions, while its Startup Competition, from which 9 unicorns have been born, has resulted in more than 1,000 finalist startups, with a survival rate of 90% and 17,000 million dollars in investment raised.
Fashion United
05-06-2025
- Business
- Fashion United
South Summit 2025 Opens in Madrid: Focus on AI, sustainability and innovation
The 14th edition of South Summit, the global event on entrepreneurship and innovation organised by IE University, officially opened on Wednesday, June 4, in Madrid. The three-day gathering is being held at La Nave, the innovation hub of the Madrid City Council, and will run through June 6. This year's edition aims to surpass the success of 2024, which welcomed over 18,000 attendees from 133 countries, including 6,500 entrepreneurs and 26 unicorns. The 2025 programme features nearly 430 speakers, structured around four key thematic areas. The first, Humanity 2.0, explores how technology can address social and environmental challenges. Sustainable Action highlights innovations in energy, agritech, climate tech and resource management. The Growth axis focuses on nurturing talent and building innovation-driven organisational cultures. Finally, Tech Horizons investigates the transformative power of emerging technologies including biotechnology, quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Among the headline speakers are Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix; Marci Zaroff, CEO of Ecofashion Corp and co-founder of Textile Exchange; and Greg Hoffman, former chief marketing officer at Nike. Also joining the lineup are Mikayel Vardanyan of Picsart, Dennis Hong from UCLA, Christophe Williams of Naked Energy, and Adriana Hoppenbrouwer-Pereira from The Fabricant. As is tradition, South Summit 2025 also features its renowned Start-up Competition, a platform offering visibility and funding opportunities to early-stage ventures. Since its launch, the competition has helped over 1,000 start-ups, boasting a 90% survival rate and nearly $17 billion in total investment. Notable alumni include unicorns like Cabify, Glovo and Jobandtalent. The opening ceremony was attended by key officials, including the Mayor of Madrid and national government representatives. María Benjumea, founder of South Summit, welcomed guests, followed by a fireside chat between Marta Cruz of NXTP Ventures and Paul Murphy from Lightspeed Venture, moderated by Diego del Alcázar Benjumea, CEO of IE University. A call for ethical and purposeful AI Don Felipe during the opening ceremony of the South Summit 2025, on June 4, 2025 in Madrid (España). Credits: ©Casa de S.M. el Rey. Spains King Felipe VI also took part in the opening session, where he underscored the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence. In his keynote address, he encouraged entrepreneurs to embrace AI's potential while maintaining an ethical, human-centric approach. 'AI is no longer a promise – it is a key driver of innovation, scalability and competitive advantage,' said King Felipe. He noted that start-ups are increasingly adopting AI in sectors such as customer service, market forecasting and energy optimisation. Spain, he added, is gaining traction in fields including digital health, cybersecurity and natural language processing, while also working on the development of ethical AI algorithms. Acknowledging the challenges ahead, from data privacy to job displacement, the monarch called for shared responsibility among businesses, governments and civil society. He advocated for innovation with purpose: 'Let us build together a Spain that does not fear artificial intelligence, because it will know how to guide it with human intelligence,' he concluded. This article is a summary of the original prepared for by Jaime Martínez, adapted for international readers by Alicia Reyes Sarmiento. This article was translated to English using an AI tool. FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@
