EBAN Malaga Smashes Records with 1.15 Million Euros Invested in Winning Startups, World-Class Speakers, Investors and Entrepreneurs!

Dear Global Innovation, Entrepreneurial, and Early Stage Community,

On 7-9 June, more than 500 attendees from 46 countries across the world gathered in Malaga, Spain, for three days of celebrating the spectacular developments in the innovation, entrepreneurial and early stage investment ecosystem. Guests of the event included angel investors, entrepreneurs, corporates, politicians, accelerators, incubators, crowd funders and more! It all led up to a spectacular Grand Finale of 1.15 million euros being invested in winning startups by Marbella Tech Angels, which you can read about below.

We were thrilled to work with our co-organizers from the City of Malaga, Promalaga, ABAN, MBAN, AEBAN, and FYCMA and to enjoy the generous hosting of Francisco de la Torre Prados, Mayor of Malaga.

As always, we would like to thank our co-organizers, as well as our partners ePlus, ESA, Gust, Cisco EIR, Mind the Bridge, Startup Europe Partnership, Ramphastos, ANIMA, EIT InnoEnergy, Russian Tech Tour, Fundacity, La Mar de Eventos, our event sponsors, ICEX - Invest in Spain, Ericsson, Accenture, the Malaga County Council, the European Social Fund, EOI, Costa Del Sol Malaga, Andalusia Technology Park, University of Malaga, the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, WeFund Health, Unicaja Bank, Telefonica. These organisations are not just bringing money but are instrumental in helping us bring to you the most up-to-date information, the hottest trends, and best practices, year after year.

This year’s EBAN Congress focused on what the future holds for many of the hot-topic sectors of today, be it Connected Mobility, Artificial Intelligence, Sustainable Energy, or Entrepreneurship and Investing itself. 

We would like to thank all those who came and for those who were unable to come, please join us in reliving EBAN Malaga with pictures and presentations from the event!

1.15 Million Euros Invested in Winning Startups at EBAN Malaga!

The 2017 EBAN Annual Congress featured 50 startups from 16 different countries pitching throughout the three days of the Congress and competing for some spectacular prizes, with the most coveted main prize being a seed investment from EBAN Member Marbella Tech Angels, led by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Andreas Mihalovits. Considering the additional 41 startups pitching at the Malaga Innovation Showcase, EBAN Malaga truly gave entrepreneurs the chance to shine.

The 3 lucky companies listed below won the prizes from Marbella Tech Angels intended for the best Andalusian, Spanish and European startups, with the total amount of investment adding up to a staggering 1.15 Million Euros!

EBAN would like to thank Marbella Tech Angels and founder Andreas Mihalovits for upping the ante for the startups pitching at EBAN Malaga and ensuring a truly spectacular Grand Finale to the EBAN Malaga Congress. "I was delighted to discover the high quality of startups having pitched at the EBAN Annual Congress in Málaga this year. That’s why the investment willingness of our group was much higher than expected and we could increase our original announced minimum commitment of 100.000 € for the Marbella Tech Angels Awards to remarkable 1.15 Million € in total for the 3 winning startups. All 3 winners PadelManager, Wuolah and 360Visualizer have a great potential to grow to become European market leaders within the next years with the investments raised within only 3 days at the EBAN Annual Congress in Málaga" Andreas Mihalovits added. 

Javier Aguilar, Founder & CEO of one of the winning startups, Padel Manager, commented: "our participation in EBAN Málaga 2017 has been the tipping point we needed to push our company to the next level".

In addition to the seed investment prizes, startups pitching at EBAN Malaga were competing for several other prizes from different sponsors:

More winning startups of legal services from Caveat Abogados and iPads from Minerva

The following startups received 2 iPads each from Minerva, an entrepreneurship program promoted by Junta de Andalucía and Vodafone.

Workkola | Alternative Energy Innovations | Wuolah | ​Energy Solaris | Bob - bag on board

 Spanish law firm Caveat Abogados gave 2 great prizes to the following startups:

Legal Services equivalent to 3K euros: Omnium Lab | Legal Services equivalent to 5K Euros: Workkola

And 2 entrepreneurs from SEP Innovation received a week-long trip to the Ericsson Garage in Sweden from Ericsson.

EBAN would like to congratulate the winning startups, as well as thank all of the organizations who sponsored prizes for the Malaga Pitching Competition!

On 7 June, entrepreneurs also had the chance to attend pitch training sessions and present their companies at the Global Investor Forum, both powered by the ePlus project. 2 startups received distinguished titles – “the Most Investible Company” being Workkola and the “One to Watch” being Alternative Energy Innovations. These two startups had the 2 highest scores out of the companies that pitched.

The Global Investment Forum Jury

The jury was composed of 22 investors and experts in different fields, named below. EBAN would like to thank all of the jury members for putting their expertise at the disposal of startups pitching at EBAN Malaga:

Elissa Freiha - Founder of WOMENA | Frédéric Rombaut - Global Technology Investor | Audra Shallal - Managing Director - BOSS Consulting in Strategic Management | Kevin Morningstar - Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor | Ariel Makov - Co-Founder & CEO of Orange Blossom Ventures Ltd | Peter Braun - Angel Investor | Riku Asikainen - Angel Investor, SLUSH & Start-up Sauna Co-Founder | Martin Johnson - Angel Investor | Yuri Navarro - Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director of NACO | Marcelo Roca - Executive Coordinator of Xcala | Paulo Andrez - Angel Investor | Charles Sidman - Angel Investor and Managing Partner of ECS Capital Partners | Matias Torrellas - Portfolio Manager of InnoEnergy | Gracia Catalina - Founder and Chairwoman of Chandra3X and of Fundación Hazloposible | Fernando Zallo - Director of ESADE BAN | Albert Colomer - Co-Founder and Executive Director of Business Angels Network Catalunya (BANC) | Marta Campillo - Manager at ESADE BAN | Andreas Mihalovits - Angel Investor | Tom Schulz - Co-founder & General Manager of AQAL Capital | Jerome Chifflet - Head of Scientific and Technical Disciplines for Orange Labs Research | Mara Harvey - Senior Manager at UBS Wealth Management | Alex d'Espona - Coordinator of Business Angels Network Catalunya (BANC)

The training activities also included workshops for entrepreneurs from Peter Hedges, Senior Advisor, for Cognitive Business at IBM, on the IBM Global Entrepreneur Program, as well as EOI and University of Malaga, among others, while also having a lot to offer for business angels - with capacity building workshops on making investments from Riku Asikainen, EBAN Vice President and FiBAN Chairman Emeritus; on running angel networks from Fernando Zallo and Marta Campillo, respectively Director and Manager of ESADE BAN; on the nuts and bolts of angel investing from Charles Sidman, managing partner of ECS Capital Partners; and on follow on rounds from Frederic Rombaut, Angel Investor and VC; investors attending EBAN Malaga got a comprehensive guide on all things angel investing.

Opening Ceremony and "Discover the Future" Sessions

The conference was opened by Jose Herrera, AEBAN President; Candace Johnson, EBAN President; Baybars Altuntas, EBAN Vice President, Riku Asikainen, EBAN Vice President, Tomi Davies, ABAN President; Paulo Andrez, EBAN President Emeritus; Juan Alvarez de Lara, AEBAN Vice President; Dr. Mara Harvey, Senior Manager at UBS Wealth Management, and Francisco de la Torre Prados, the Mayor of Malaga, who gave an inspiring welcome speech, truly showing the international spirit of EBAN. Throughout the event, Gina Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Apple founder Steve Wozniak's biography, acted as Master of Ceremonies, giving a unique flavor to the proceedings.

Following the opening, the conference got off to a great start with keynote speeches and a panel exploring the future of Connected Mobility with Bradley Mead, Ericsson Global Head of Managed Services & Network Design & Optimisation; the future of Technology with Steven C. Tiell, Accenture Senior Principal Global Technology, Strategy, & Innovation; the future of InsurTech with Christian Gruendl, AXA Germany Head of Strategy and Organization; the future of Sustainable Energy with Diego Pavia, CEO KIC InnoEnergy, and, last but not least, the future of Entrepreneurship itself with Jeff Hoffman, Serial Entrepreneur and Global Mentor to Startups.

The Future of Investing was also the topic of the panel that closed out the conference on 8 June, with Alexander Stoeckel, Partner at btov; Kaidi Ruusalepp, Founder and CEO of Funderbeam; Lasse Makela, CEO and co-founder of Invesdor Ltd; Jan D. Oker-Blom, CEO of Finnish Business Angels Network and NordicBAN, giving their expert insights and Charles Sidman, angel investor, moderating. The panel was also preceded by the announcement of EBAN's 2016 statistics, with a new record of 6.6 billion euros invested by business angels and statistics gathered from 35 countries. Additionally, Alberto Onetti, Chairman & President at Mind the Bridge, presented statistics on scaleups in Europe, which lined up quite well with EBAN's investment statistics.

Talks of the future continued on 9 June as well, with a standout keynote speech from Hugh Campbell, Founder and Managing Partner of GP Bullhound, discussing tech trends, unicorns and clusters, followed by a thought-provoking keynote from Gina Smith, Tech Guru, New York Times Bestselling Author of Apple Founder Steve Wozniak's Biography, who broke down the ins and outs of "Fake News" and the future of media.

The last "Discover the Future" session was futuristic indeed with a focus on Space Technologies with panelists Anthony Clarke, CEO of Angel Capital Group, Co-Founder/Managing Partner of Seraphim Capital and Seraphim Space Fund; Mark Boggett, CEO of Seraphim Capital; Rainer Horn, Managing Partner of SpaceTec Capital Partners GmbH; Nick Appleyard, ESA Head of Integrated Applications and Downstream Services Department; Uli Fricke, Managing General Partner and Founder of Triangle VC; Raúl Verdú, Co-Founder of PLD Space; and Kalle Vähä-Jaakkola, CEO & Co-founder of Space Nation, moderated by EBAN President Candace Johnson. Discussions on the topic of space continued also at the workshop on Investing in Space Technologies.

Serial Entrepreneur Jeff Hoffman (Priceline, UBid, ColorJar) Stars at EBAN Malaga 

Legendary serial entrepreneur Jeff Hoffman (Priceline, UBid, ColorJar) was one of the special guests at EBAN Malaga - as the last keynote speaker in the opening panel, he talked about the future of entrepreneurship. In his inspirational speech, Jeff emphasized that entrepreneurs are the answer to world problems - “If you want to make the world a better place, unleash an army of entrepreneurs”.

Jeff Hoffman was a constant presence and a treasure trove of expertise all throughout the Congress - activities on 7 June were preceded by a welcome speech from him, discussing the importance of entrepreneurship and how early stage investment is changing the world. Jeff also led a workshop for entrepreneurs on "Scaling up your business" and how entrepreneurs can achieve rapid revenue growth, as well as a session on "how to build a billion euro company".

Spectacular Keynote Speeches Inspire EBAN Malaga Attendees

In addition to the amazing speakers who gave speeches on "the future of" some fascinating topics, there were even more spectacular keynote speeches throughout the EBAN Annual Congress, with renowned FIFA World Cup Referee Urs Meier discussing how to make fast decisions and stick with them, Javier Placer, CEO of Telefonica Open Future, speaking about how to accelerate global companies, Cyril Gouiffes, EIF Investment Manager for Venture Capital & Impact Investing and Hedda Pahlson Moller, EBAN Impact Chair educating the audience on the impact imperative.

EBAN Malaga Panels Bring the Most Relevant Issues to the Forefront

EBAN Malaga 2017 stood out with a large number of panels covering a multitude of fascinating topics:

The Public Private Co-Investment Angel Funds & Accelerator Funds panel gave a comprehensive overview of the topic with Paulo Andrez, EBAN President Emeritus; Michael O’Connor, E-Xcelerator Chair and CEO of CorkBIC; and Ricardo Luz, IFD Board Member, where the 2016 EBAN Compendium of Co-Investment Funds was also presented. Discussion on the topic continued at a breakaway workshop with Ivar Siimar, President Emeritus of EstBAN joining the panelists.

The "Investing like a Super Angel" panel gave the audience a chance to hear from angels who have years of experience and great advice to give to those just starting out - the panelists were Ari Korhonen, Angel Investor and Founder Lagoon Capital; Jose Martin Cabiedes, Angel Investor and Partner at Cabiedes & Partners SCR; Elissa Freiha, Angel Investor and Founder at WOMENA; and Tom Schulz, Founder and CEO of AQAL AG.

The panel on Open Innovation provided great insights on collaboration between corporates and startups from Frederic Rombaut, Angel Investor and VC; Javier Placer, CEO Telefonica Open Future; and Elena Bou, Innovation Director InnoEnergy; moderated by Alberto Onetti, Chairman & President at Mind the Bridge.

The Investing in Spain panel gave great insights into this magnificent country with Maria Jesus Fernandez, Director of Finance & Investor Relations at ICEX-Invest in Spain; Bruno Fernandez Scrimieri, CEO of ENISA; Eneko Knorr, Angel Investor, Founder and CEO of Ludei; and Felix Ruiz, Executive Chairman JobandTalent, Co-founder Tuenti; moderated by Javier Ulecia, Founding Partner of Bullnet Capital. While the Latest Investment Trends in Spain discussion took the topic one step further and focused on angel investing in Spain with the following panelists: César Bardaji, Angel Investor; Albert Colomer, Co-Founder and Executive Director Business Angel Network Catalunya; Juan Roure, Founder and President IESE BAN; Carles Florensa, Board Member ESADE BAN, Angel Investor and Entrepreneur; Juan Alvarez de Lara, Founder Seed&Click and Vice President AEBAN; and Miquel Costa, President Keiretsu Forum Spain, moderated by Jose Herrera, President of AEBAN.

The discussion was further developed at the workshop on Investing in Spain, Andalusia and in Malaga led by Marc Sanderson, Director of International Economic Development for the City of Malaga; Elena Gallego, Head of the Investment Promotion Division - Invest in Andalucía; Lourdes Cruz, Director of Business Development & Investment Promotion, Parque Tecnologico de Andalucia; María García Vilches, Promotion Executive, Turismo y Planificación Costa del Sol; and Manuel Jesús Rodríguez, Coordinator of Investments at Inverseed; moderated by Rafael Fuentes, Director of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness in Malaga.

Turning from Spain to the world at large, the Global View on Angel Investing panel featured perspectives from all over the world with Tomi Davies, ABAN President; Yuri Navarro, CEO NACO Canada; Louis Saint-Jacques, President of Archimède Solutions and Co-Founder Anges Québec; Kevin Morningstar, General Partner at Rockies Venture Fund; Marcelo Roca, Executive Coordinator XCALA; Selma Prodanovic, Founder of 1 Million Startups; Anu Bhardwaj, Founder of Women INVESTING in Women DIGITAL & The State of Women Institute; Elissa Freiha, Angel Investor and Founder at WOMENA; and Luis Sanz, CEO of IASP.

EBAN Malaga Workshops Offer Input on a Variety of Fascinating Topics

The workshops that took place on 8 and 9 June gave EBAN Malaga attendees the chance to pick and choose from a variety of fascinating topics the ones they were interested in: 

For those interested in Artificial Intelligence, the Accenture workshop on AI as an Innovation Ecosystem Engine was the obvious choice, led by Angel Morales, AI Iberia Lead in Accenture Technology; Jaime Mata Iriondo, Associate Director at Accenture Technology; Cyrille Bataller, Managing Director - Emerging Technology at Accenture; Jose F. Aldana, Artificial Intelligence Professor at the University of Malaga; Manuel Ruiz De Quintanilla, Partner and CTO of Aeorum; Eduardo Fernandez, Investor and Board Member of BigML; and Emilio Avilés, CEO & Founder of Bloomium.

The Corporate Venturing Workshop with Alberto Onetti, Chairman & President at Mind the Bridge; Frederic Rombaut, Angel Investor and VC; Jérôme Chifflet, Orange Labs Open Innovation; and Bettina Vossberg, CEO of HighTech Startbahn focused on open innovation and startup-corporate collaboration; while at the AXA Workshop, Johannes Dick, AXA Group Germany Corporate Development, provided the latest developments in InsurTech.

Women Investor Networks and Women Entrepreneurship Workshop took center stage again in a workshop moderated by EBAN Impact Chair, Hedda Pahlson Moller. Florence Korhonen, Founder and Chair of NFBAN; Marika Mazzi Boem, Co-founder & Senior Innovation Strategist at X23, Anu Bhardwaj, Founder of Women INVESTING in Women DIGITAL & The State of Women Institute, and Juan Alvarez de Lara, Founder Seed&Click and Vice President of AEBAN, discussed how women both as investors and as entrepreneurs are playing a fundamental role in our societies. Per tradition, EBAN Malaga also hosted a closed door training for the Rising Tide initiative. 

Panel on the Latest Investment Trends in Spain

Impact Investment also took centre stage at EBAN Malaga with a workshop titled Impact Investment as a Boost to Support Innovation in Emerging Markets. Participants included Jaap Spreeuwenberg, Managing Director of Hivos Impact Investments; Gert van Veldhuisen, Director BiD Network Foundation; Venkata Gandikota, Founder & President of The Nordic Frugal Innovation Society; Catalina Parra, Founder and Chair at Chandra3x; Hedda Pahlson Moller, EBAN Impact Chair and Cecile Sevrain, EBAN Impact Program Officer. This interesting panel was moderated by no other than Martijn Blom, EBAN Impact Vice Chair.

Louis Saint-Jacques, President of Archimède Solutions and Co-Founder Anges Québec, was one of the participants in the workshop titled ‘How Public Authorities can support Entrepreneurs and Investors: Lessons from the EU and Quebec’ together with Ignacio Puente, Policy Officer European Commission, DG RTD - Unit in charge of SMEs, Financial Instruments and State Aids, Ana Barjasic, EU Project Director at EBAN and Mathias Fillion from the Anima Investment Network.

Representatives from Africa, MENA and Latin America got together to discuss the Africa, MENA and LATAM opportunity – How to tap into these booming markets. The participants - Tomi Davies, President African Business Angel Network; Elissa Freiha, Founder of WOMENA; and Marcelo Roca, Executive Coordinator XCALA - discussed how these regions are getting hotter and hotter with new networks and new fund structures available for angels outside the region. 

The GUST workshop on ‘Best Practices for Angel Networks’, led by Julien Tubbs, Head of Business Development – EMEA at Gust, continued the extremely important conversation on what BANs can do to develop their operations, while Jelena Vester, Angel Investor and Business Lawyer led a workshop titled ‘KNOW HOW 2 IP in Startups: An ultimate short guide to IP elements for startup entrepreneurs & investors’ that focused on the differences in legal regimes and scope of protection of patents, design & utility models, trademarks and domain names, and main differences in regulation between EU and the US.

LATAM and Spanish Investor Roundtable

EBAN Malaga Roundtables Enable Participants to Have Interactive Discussions on Topics of Interest

The EBAN Malaga Congress also featured several roundtable discussions on 8 June, which gave the speakers and the attendees the ability to have an interactive discussion on their topics of interest and come up with goals for the future: 

The Gaming Industry roundtable was led by Eneko Knorr, Angel Investor, Founder and CEO of Ludei; Luis Quintans, CEO at BadLand Game; and Ferran Puntí, Strategic Partnerships at Kerad Games; while being moderated by Martin Jerch, Head of Department at the Financing and Investor Relations Office.

The EBAN CEE Community roundtable, which truly showed how well this initiative and the CEE region itself is developing was led by Davorin Stetner, President EBAN CEE and Chair CRANE; Branko Drobnak, VP EBAN CEE / Chair Slovenia Business Angels; Selma Prodavonic, EBAN Board Member, VP AAIA; Baybars Altuntas, Chairman TBAA and EBAN VP; and Peter Hedges, Senior Advisor, Cognitive Business at IBM.

The Connected Mobility roundtable continued exploring the topic after Bradley Mead's fascinating keynote, with Tom Horsey, Co-Founder Connected Mobility Hub; Ricardo de Lombas Rodríguez-Monte, Manager of Electric Vehicles and Business Development PSA; and Sergio Diez, Co-Founder Connected Mobility Hub & Product Manager, Renault.

And a special roundtable for LATAM and Spanish Investors took place in Spanish led by Jose Herrera, President AEBAN; César Bardaji, Angel Investor; Marcelo Roca, Executive Coordinator XCALA; Albert Colomer, Co-Founder and Executive Director Business Angel Network Catalunya; Carles Florensa, Board Member ESADE BAN; Juan Alvarez de Lara, Founder Seed&Click and Vice President AEBAN; and Miquel Costa, President Keiretsu Forum Spain; moderated by Amparo De San Jose, Director of IESE BAN.

EBAN announces collaboration with IASP and InnoEnergy at EBAN Malaga 2017

The EBAN Malaga Congress was also the occasion to announce 2 collaboration agreements, the first one being between IASP - International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation, and EBAN, ABAN and MBAN, with the aim of promoting cooperation based on mutual aspirations in the industry of science, technology innovation and entrepreneurship, supporting the creation of new technology and knowledge based companies. The second but no less important collaboration was announced between EBAN and InnoEnergy. The partnership will entail launching EBAN Energy and will give both EBAN’s network and InnoEnergy’s 170+ pan-European sustainable energy start-ups a networking platform, paving the way for future investments and subsequently increasing the number of commercially successful sustainable businesses. EBAN is very excited to partner with both of these organizations and remains certain that these will be fruitful cooperations that will result in a blooming of joint activities.

InnoEnergy also led 2 workshops at the Congress: Investing in Sustainable Energy on 8 June with Elena Bou, Innovation Director of InnoEnergy; Lucienne Krose, Thematic Leader Smart Cities & Buildings at InnoEnergy; Joan Fages, Managing Partner at CXC Energia Renovable; David Comellas, CEO at AEInnova; and Maria Sansigre, Investment Director at Demeter; moderated by Matias Torrellas, Portfolio Manager of InnoEnergy; as well as a workshop on Working with Entrepreneurs on 9 June with Monica Mateu, Innovation Ecosystem & Development Manager; Alberto Gonzalez, Innovation Ecosystem and Development Project Manager at InnoEnergy; and Ingvar Eriksson, Business Creation Officer at InnoEnergy.

Flamenco Performance at the EBAN Gala Dinner and Awards

EBAN Malaga Gala Dinner and Awards Pay Tribute to Early Stage Ecosystem Champions 

The EBAN Malaga Gala Dinner and Awards hosted 220 guests and celebrated individuals and organisations who work tirelessly to improve the venture and entrepreneurial finance eco-system the world over. The honorees were: Tom Schulz, Co-founder & General Manager of AQAL Capital - Best European Early Stage Investor; Danish Business Angel Network - Best Performing EBAN Member; Monte Carlo Capital - Best performing New EBAN Member; Albert Colomer, President of BANC - Early Stage Investor who has been a game changer for Europe; Baybars Altuntas - Promotion of Early Stage Investment within the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem; Halo Business Angel Network (Ireland) - Best European Business Angel Week Initiative; Faveoo, Galata Business Angels and Sophia Business Angels - Successful Business Financed by Early Stage Investors. Special recognition awards went to Francisco de la Torre Prados, Mayor of Malaga, Andreas Mihalovits, Founder of Marbella Tech Angels; ICEX, with Francisco Garzon, CEO of ICEX accepting the award, the City of Malaga, with councillor Mario Cortes accepting, and, last but not least, to Jeff Hoffman. EBAN would like to congratulate all of the honorees and thank them for their contributions to the early stage ecosystem.

EBAN Malaga was also held at the same time as the Malaga Innovation Festival, which had its own set of exciting activities – not the least of them being the GreenCities and HiDrone Congresses, which all Congress attendees were able to attend, as well as the El Balneario Beach Afterparty on 7 June, which provided a nice break after a day of workshops and pitching.

With kindest regards and already looking forward to EBAN Summit Munich on 16-18 October,

Candace, Jacopo, Chloé, Emanuele, Keti and Grecia.