VDS, an international technological benchmark

The 2021 Valencia Digital Summit ends with great success thanks to the interest aroused in more than 5,600 people who attended in person and more than 5,000 via live stream. With this fourth edition of the technological event held on the 15th and 16th of December at the Oceanográfico of the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, the convention consolidated its position as an international technological benchmark for startups and corporations.

The four thematic stages located inside the Oceanográfico hosted an extensive programme with more than 60 hours of content, comprising conferences and round table talks by over 300 internationally renowned speakers, workshops, and networking spaces. For two days, Valencia was the meeting point for entrepreneurs, corporations, investors, and institutions that support entrepreneurship.

The grand finale was the closing ceremony that included the words of the Deputy Mayor of Valencia, Sandra Gómez, who assured that the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Valencia ‘has talent, capacity and strength, but after the two-day celebration of this Valencia Digital Summit, we have shown that it also has maturity and potential’, highlighting that this event ‘will mark a before and after for the city and the sector’. The president of Startup Valencia, Juan Luis Hortelano, took the opportunity to thank everyone who had followed the technological event and highlighted it as a ‘turning point for the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Valencian Community’.

This was followed by the awards ceremony for various open calls and programmes in collaboration with companies and entities of considerable relevance. The Capital4Startups Pitch Competition jury named Streamion, the Valencian platform that connects streamers with brands, as ‘Best Startup Seed’ and Nect, an intelligent digital identity solution located in Hamburg, Germany, as ‘Best Startup Growth’. Moreover, the University Startup Mentoring programme by Glovo chose the portable invoicing software Prockett and the agricultural marketplace AGRARI to mentor its projects.

GeeksHubs handed out various prizes to the Workshop participants. The Python Mercadona Tech Workshop prize went to Daniel Rodríguez; the Phyton Cecotec Workshop prize was given to Luigi Minardi, and the Python Dekalabs Workshop one, to Pepe Fabra. The winner of the Amazon Web Services & L1DR Workshop was DiversiTool. Furthermore, after the formation of teams and the development of the projects, the jury of The Challenge UPV finally chose FERSUS (Andrés Planells, Victoria Olcina, Aliaa Sayed and Almudena Molina). In addition, Startup Valencia presented the Award of Honour to Jesús Casanova, in recognition of his long professional career as director of CEEI Valencia.

Valencian Community Startup Observatory Report

Another highlight of the second day of the 2021 Valencia Digital Summit was the presentation of the Valencian Community Startup Observatory Report, which provided data on the progress of startups in 2021, demonstrating a growth rate of 15% and a total number of 1012 in the whole Valencian Community.

As the main sectors in the region, software development, e-commerce and mobile application startups stand out, accounting for 27% of the total. In addition, 18% of the startups are in the sectors of health, food technology and clean technology. On top of this, startups in the field of social impact have increased by 60% in the last year.

More than 50% of startups are developing Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, IoT and Cloud Computing. In terms of employment data, more than 30% of startups employ more than 10 qualified people in the team and 57% of startups have increased their workforce in 2021. Regarding female entrepreneurship, 39% of startups have at least one female founder on their team. And one more statistic: 76% of startups are pursuing triple impact (social, environmental, and financial).

Significant institutional and corporate support

The fourth edition of the Valencia Digital Summit counted with the notable presence of the Spanish Government, represented by Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, and Francisco Polo, High Commissioner for España Nación Emprendedora (Spain, an Entrepreneurial Nation). At the regional level, Rafael Climent, minister of Sustainable Economy, Productive Sectors, Trade and Labour; and Carolina Pascual, minister of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society, also attended. The local and provincial level was represented by Carlos F. Bielsa, vice president of the Provincial Council of Valencia and deputy for the Area of Municipal Cooperation, Territorial Cohesion and European Projects; Sandra Gómez, Vice Mayor of Valencia; and Pilar Bernabé, Vice Mayor of the Economic Model of the Valencian City Council.

In addition, the event had the unconditional support of institutions such as the Universitat Politècnica de València (Polytechnic University of Valencia), the Valencian Institute for Business Competitiveness (IVACE), the Valencia City Council through València Activa and VLC Tech City, the Valencia Provincial Council, and Distrito Digital (Digital District).

At the corporate level, international leaders such as Pablo Medina, Technology Investor at EQT Growth; Robin Wauters, founding editor of Tech.eu; Magdalena Szuszkiewicz, General Manager of Gorillas and Daniela Raffel Torrebiarte, VC Investor at Dawn Capital, among many others, took part in the first day of the summit. On the following day, the interventions of Alberto Gutiérrez, president of Fundación LAB; Elias Veris, Global Strategy & Operations Lead at Google for Startups; Iker Marcaide, Founder of Zubi Labs and Franco Segarra, Innovation Director of Valencia CF, among many others, were of particular note.

Without a doubt, the participation of such a large number of entrepreneurs and entities has made international networking between startups and investors possible, a factor which will favour the acceleration of the Valencian Community’s innovative and technological companies ecosystem. The different themes of the presentations were developed around the motto ‘Inspiring the Good Future’, emphasising the importance of technology and innovation in inspiring and building a better world. All this, framed in the city of Valencia: a city chosen as the healthiest to live in, established as a focal point for innovation and entrepreneurship, and recognised as the ideal location for digital nomads.