Uelz payment startup win South Summit Madrid 2023

Madrid, June 11, 2023. South Summit ended after three intense days in Madrid. Co-organized by IE University, the eleventh edition of the leading meeting of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem was supported by Spain Up Nation, the regional government of Madrid and Madrid City Hall, as well as Mutua Madrileña, Google for Startups, BBVA Spark, Endesa, Toptal, Wayra – Telefónica Innovation and BStartup of Banco Sabadell.

Uelz, a startup from Spain’s eastern Valencia region won the Fintech vertical, making it the overall winner of South Summit Madrid 2023. Uelz reduces the technical costs of implementation and maintenance of payment platforms, automating in seconds customers’ subscriptions and one-time payments.

Once again, South Summit Madrid 2023 brought together representatives of the leading players in the Spanish and global entrepreneurial ecosystem in person at La Nave in Madrid, filling the space for three days with pre-pandemic attendance figures. “Of the 20,000 attendees that have visited this eleventh edition, 6,500 were entrepreneurs, 2,000 investors with an investment portfolio of more than $326 billion, along with  650 high-level speakers. In addition, more than 175,000 high-value connections have been made,” concluded María Benjumea, president and founder of South Summit.

The awards recognizing the most disruptive, scalable, sustainable startups and those with the best team were also announced. Finnish startup Onego Bio, which has cracked the code to produce egg white protein without the need for chickens, instead using precision fermentation, was selected as the Most Disruptive. German startup Build38, which offers reinforcement and protection for apps to secure their users’ personal data against cybersecurity threats, was designated Most Scalable. Legit.Health, a project developed by the University of the Basque Country (UPV) that is using AI to transform clinical practice in dermatology thanks to its AI platform, received the award for Best Team. Finally, the award for the Most Sustainable startup went to Lumio from Madrid, which contributes to the development of 100% sustainable communities, providing the opportunity to install, share or consume sustainable energy.

The closing ceremony was presided over by the Spanish Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Hector Gómez, declaring: “Madrid is a perfect place for the culture of entrepreneurship. We have a lot of resources to facilitate entrepreneurial activity and I advise you to make use of them. Let’s take advantage of the growth that is coming to Spain in the next few years to continue promoting entrepreneurship”.

During the last day of #SouthSummit23, the South Summit Kids Competition award was also presented, which recognizes the entrepreneurial talent of the emerging generation. It  went to the Madrid school Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba for its project ‘Renewable Energy Town’.

SpaceTech and SportsTech, protagonists of the final day

In addition to the award-winning entrepreneurs, SpaceTech and SportsTech were the main topics of conversation on Friday.

The Madrid-based startup Fossa Systems, which specializes in the manufacture of satellites and IoT solutions, won this first edition of the SpaceTech track.

With the aim of bringing together key players and stakeholders from the sports and technology sectors to explore and present the latest innovations, trends and opportunities in sports technology, this year’s SportsTech track attracted important figures from the sports world such as Pau Gasol, Iker Casillas and Jon Bartlett, Performance, Research & Innovation Lead of the NBA, who on the last day of #SouthSummit23 noted that, “one of the secrets of maximum performance of athletes is to know how to integrate technology into their routine. A lot of technology has failed because it hasn’t connected with the right people who understand it”.

Another of the highlights of the closing ceremony was given by Darin Olien, American author, wellness expert and creator of the documentary series ‘Down to Earth with Zac Efron’, who offered his encouragement to “all of you who want to create to create. But I encourage you to create with care, we don’t want more problems, we want solutions to the problems we already have”. Finally, Robyn O’Brien, co-founder of Replant Capital, spoke about sustainability, pointing out: “we have all woken up to its importance. We all play a key role in how our businesses and companies contribute to improving human and planetary health.”