The Venture Network closed out its final Thursday before the summer break with a very fun and intriguing Vertical on the Food & Beverage Industry on July 10th. This topic has been especially common at IE in the past month. Starting off with the IE International Commerce Club hosting the CEO of Mahou, Alberto Rodríguez, and the IE Entrepreneurship Club holding an event on July 15^th with the co-founder of the craft brewery, Fábrica Maravillas in Malasaña, this vertical proved to be very popular with the community.

We had 3 cutting edge startups give their best pitch in 7 minutes followed by 10 minutes of Q&A from our experienced panel members. The outcome of all this hard work, were 2 tickets to the Pioneers Festival in Vienna, Austria where the winning team will get a chance to experience the future of technology and network amongst some of the top entrepreneurial minded people around.

First, the audience and panel were very interested by Yo Campro Sano who is trying to make sure people have greater access to locally grown, organic food, by connecting farmers directly with consumers. Since their launch in October 2013 they have seen considerable traction and are currently seeking another round of funding where they hope to raise €250,000 in order to broaden their team and implement further development. Second, Recipay.com pitched their idea for rewarding consumers for utilizing products from specific brands and uploading recipes online. They are currently working with a number of different brands and have received numerous distinctions for their work. Lastly, the audience saw Shopping Leeks offer their solution for making the ordering process much easier between restaurants and distributors. All 3 companies have put a lot of hard work into making their business succeed and at the end the panel ultimately sided with Recipay.com, who was awarded with the prize of the evening.

We’d like to say thank you to all of the startups who participated and those that were in attendance. A very special thank you to the 3 panel members: Paula Almansa, a business angel and the co-founder of the Impact HUB in Madrid; Juan López Santamaría, an Investment Manager at Kibo Ventures; and Federico Giacalone, who is the Head Chef at the Westin Palace Madrid.

We’d also like to remind all those other aspiring startups there’s still time to apply for the Pioneers Challenge which provides you access to some of the most influential investors in your industry, plus 1 month free of mentorship and coaching. You can read more about it here.

The Venture Network will be resuming every Thursday starting in September, so remember to come and check out what new startups we have pitching down in Area 31. You can also follow us on Meetup to stay up-to-date on all of the Venture Network events.