Perhaps one of the strongest assets at IE Business School is their entrepreneurial spirit. Recently, IE celebrated their Venture Day, a series of keynote presentations by world-recognized entrepreneurs and a demo day for competing startups from IE University, IE Business School and their alumni network.

IE Venture Day has become an iconic event in the Spanish startup ecosystem, gathering investors, startups, students from all over Europe, Silicon Valley and Israel. This year, keynote speakers included Uri Levine, Co-Founder of Waze, 500 Startups’ Bedy Yang, Wayra’s Gary Stewart, and Busuu’s Bernhard Niesner, among others.

Entrepreneurs were able to interact directly with speakers throughout a series of practical workshops which were strongly based on Q&A from the audience in subjects like user acquisition strategies, mistakes in financing, planning for the exit, and pros & cons of accelerators.

In the startup demo competition, the professional network for young people – Tyba, was recognized as the people’s favorite and first prize winner of the competition. In addition, they also won people’s choice at this year’s The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam. The loyalty card app Stocard was the runner-up followed by 21st Century Bet who placed in third. Other finalists included innovative startups such as: Yaax Woolis, Golsie, BrandCont, ClubKviar, PeopleSports, Wadax and Scoutti.

During a keynote presentation, Daniel Daboczy, CEO of the Swedish crowdfunding platform FundedByMe, officially announced their partnership with IE to open their Madrid branch. Their mission is to expand across the globe and connect entrepreneurs with everyday business angels.

Additionally, this year marked the launch of IE’s startup incubator – Area 31. The incubator is designed for existing IE alumni with promising startups, providing mentorship and a coworking space for the members. Area 31 is also host to the weekly IE Venture Network events; an open and informal pitch slam event every Thursday for innovative entrepreneurs to present their startups to a panel of investors followed up by beers and networking.

Review by Rui Delgado, Founder Pathfinder, startup @ Area31

Liz Fleming, Paris de l´Etraz, Julio de Castro & Venture Day Winner Tyba