Minerva Program, TechBa backed up by the Regional Government of Andalusia together with Vodafone, has held its second virtual investment forum `Minerva Investor Day´, with more than one hundred attendees including leading national investment funds, as well as international investment profiles and business angels.
Despite COVID19, this second Minerva meeting with the investment ecosystem has been a success. “Funds have not stopped investing, indeed now they are looking for digital business models and solutions that transform traditional sectors, such as education or health”, explains Gracia Catalina, director of Minerva Program, who considers it essential to connect the investor ecosystem with companies that need to inject capital in order to grow in the market. The forum lasted approximately two hours and was launched online.
Eight high-potential technology companies had the opportunity to present their business models in a five-minute elevator pitch. These startups have currently an open investment round, which will allow them to continue growing and expanding their market even outside the spanish frontiers. Such is the case of Wuolah, a university-platform where students from high school as well as from universities can download documents and receive financial compensation for their sharing. With more than 600,000 active users, they want to make the leap to LatAm; and Chekin, a reference solution for the `check-in´ of any type of tourist accommodation, is already present in more than 20 countries and used in 15,000 properties around the world.
In this occasion, the biotechnological sector was also present with two highly innovative startups. G2G Algae, an R+D+i company that proposes the cultivation of microalgae as a tool for multiple applications such as food, cosmetics or agriculture, highlighting the purifying and regenerating power of these plants; and Cultiply, which has developed a technology capable of multiplying the microorganisms present in yeasts in order to save costs in the agri-food industry.
They have also presented Nubentos, a web platform that simplifies integrations between different software in the health sector by performing a single management with a marketplace of APIs that have already been used by more than 1,800 users; and Vestigia, which is a blockchain-based solution that allows to protect the identity ands origins of products to prevent counterfeiting.
There were also startups seeking investment rounds with the aim of consolidating their business models in the edtech sector launched in 2020 such as BrainsPro, an integrated SaaS e-learning solution for the creation of virtual academies; and Liceo de Farmacia, an online platform for continuous learning specialized in pharmacies to improve customers services and sales.