At this year’s EU-Startups Summit on April 20-21 in Barcelona we will gather over 2,000 founders, startup enthusiasts and investors for two days of networking, inspiration and learning! At our annual flagship event we’ll have a buzzing exhibition hall, a dedicated networking app, a great networking area/party, 2 stages with exciting speakers, a big Pitch Competition, and much more!
This year, we are bringing back our popular ‘Investors on Stage’ Sessions. During this, we invite 30 high-profile and carefully selected VCs to join us on the main stage to present their investment firm/focus with a 2-3 minute pitch each. It’s an occasion where we flip the switch, turn the tables, and put the investors in the hot seat for a change!
We’ll have two chances to catch this: Day 1 on the Main Stage at 5pm and on the Main Stage on Day 2 at 2.30pm.
Most startup founders might agree: pitching to investors can be a daunting task. But before even reaching out to investors it’s important to do your homework and to find out which VC firms are actually a fit for your company in terms of industry focus, business stage focus or even geographical focus.
Checking out our Investors on Stage session, but also enjoying active networking with our 300+ investors at the EU-Startpus Summit, will help you as a founder to meet and connect with VCs, business angels and accelerators that might be just the right fit for your startup.
Here, we introduce you to the different investors joining the session this year:
Day 1
Marc Badosa Rigau, Founding Partner of 4Founders Capital. With over 15 years of VC experience, Marc founded 4Foudners Capital in 2016. It currently has €62 million in assets under management. It makes minority investments and co-invests with business angels.
Dhiren Chatlani, Investment Director at Actyus VC. Founded in 2022, Actyus invests in fintech companies across Europe and Latam. Portfolio companies include Creditas, MyInvestor, BoomPay, LemonEnergia, Zippi and Mundi.io
Leire Corral, Principal at Adevinta Ventures. Adevinta Ventures invests in early-stage startups building companies with tangible traction, actively monetizing and clear potential to scale. It focuses on spaces with connections to Adevinta, such as mobility, proptech, fintech and recommence.
Laura Gelheut, Cusp Capital, is an expert in marketing solutions for B2B and B2C environments. Based in Essen, Cusp Capital invests in disruptive early-stage startups. Over the last decade, it has invested over €400 million in companies such as Zalando, Delivery Hero, Klarna, Scalable Capital, and Data Artisans.
Nina Alastruey, Investment Director at Demium. Founded in 2013, Demium helps to implement projects with a prominent digital and technological component. In June 2020, the Demium venture capital management launched a €50 million initial fund, investing annually in more than 75 startups.
Virginia Bassano, Investor at Eight Roads Ventures. With the firm, Virginia backs startups across Software, Consumer, FinTech and HealthTech verticals. Eight Roads Ventures is a global firm backing tech and healthcare teams. It has $11 billion in AUM and over 300 portfolio companies.
Tomer Strikovsky, Investment Manager at ETF Partners. Tomer invests in European companies promoting sustainability through innovation. ETF Partners has been operating since 2006, supporting entrepreneurs with capital and expertise.
Helena Torras, Managing Partner at Paocapital and Venture Partner and Investment Manager at Hans (wo)men Group. Paocapital aims to make an impact through collaboration. It invests in diverse teams with scalable projects.
Alexander Zemlyak, Principal and Head of Israel at Leta Capital. Alexander invests in and supports innovative startups with impactful ideas. Leta Capital is a global firm primarily interested in automation software, AR/VR and Big Data.
Veronika Argust, AI Startup Incubator. Veronika is focused on making investments in the AI space. AI Startup Incubator is a part of Look AI Ventures (LAIV), on a mission to empower early-stage startups addressing major markets with AI-driven solutions at their core.
Benedikt Kronberger, Investment Partner at Matterwave VC. With Matterwave, Benedikt invests in early-stage startups across the entire industrial value chain, including industry 4.0, industrial IoT, autonomous robots, additive manufacturing, data analytics/ AI for industrial process optimisation, autonomous vehicles and AR/VR.
Petra Hudeček Končelíková, Founder and General Partner at Nation1 VC. Petra has supported over 350 startups on their growth trajectory. Since 2019, she has led Nation 1 VC, a firm focused on seed-stage startups. It launched a €35 million VC fund in 2019 and has a strong track record in the CEE region.
Philipp Hauptmann, Investment Analyst at STS Ventures. Cologne-based STS Ventures was launched to concentrate the business activities of serial entrepreneur and successful investor Stephan Schubert. It backs tech startups, giving them advice, capital and a supportive hand.
Oleg Malenkov, Partner at TA Ventures. International firm TA Ventures backs early-stage startups and has made over 200 deals since 2010. Prior to his investment career, Oleg was a co-founder of Conceptor, acquired by Ajax Systems in 2021.
Joe Seager, Investment Director at True VC. Focusing on the early stage, Joe is a seasoned investor and has previously worked in corporate strategy. True VC backs consumer businesses with investment and brand collaboration.
Day 2
Zina Alfa, Early Stage Investments at Antler. Zina is also the founder of UB Hair. Antler backs driven founders across the world. It has so far invested in more than 600 startups across a wide range of industries and technologies, with the goal of backing more than 6,000 by 2030.
. Victor has over 6 years of experience as an investor and over 4 years of experience as an entrepreneur. Currently working with Breega, a firm that offers capital and connections, expertise and experience, support and solidarity for entrepreneurs.
Michal Papuga, Investment Associate at Flashpoint VC. Michal has previously worked with mAccelerator, EY and ForeVest Capital Partners. Flashpoint is an international tech investment manager with approx. $400 million AUM.
Azahara Espejo, Country Manager Spain for HearstLab Europe, a firm aiming to close the VC funding gap for women. In addition to finance, the company offers expertise across fintech, healthcare, transportation, consumer media, enterprise software, and data analytics. Azahara previously worked as the Country Manager for Spain at Crowdcube.
Alina Klarner, Head of Ventures at Impact Shakers. Alina supports entrepreneurs and startups tackling complex societal challenges through inclusive entrepreneurship. Impact Shakers works with entrepreneurs and investors, innovating financing and tools and lobbying for policy change.
Fernando Casado, co-founder and General Partner of Inclimo Climate Tech VC. With Inclimo, Fernando backs impactful teams creating systemic change through technology. The firm focuses on the verticals of FoodTech, AgroTech, PropTech, Circular Economy, Transport & Smart Mobility and UtilityTech that focus on reducing CO2 emissions.
Francesca Hanania, VC investor at IRIS Ventures. Focusing on Beauty, Health and wellbeing and Lifestyle sectors, Francesca is an active investor in the consumer space. IRIS Ventures aims to bolster brands and tech-enabled solutions that make our lives healthier, happier and more convenient.
Jordi Vidal, Principal at Kibo Ventures. Jordi is an experienced investor having worked with Kibo since 2017. The investment firm supports European early-stage startups that are leveraging tech to solve societal problems.
Paulina Jänsch, Founding Partner at Leanox Impact Capital. Paulina empowers impact makers to create positive change on this planet through investment. The firm prioritises the founders and innovators that make a difference, are driven by purpose and look for impact beyond return.
Rebecca Sjödin, Co-founder of Node VC, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in groundbreaking technology startups. Rebecca is a seasoned investment professional with experience in Goldman Sachs, Carnegie and Novax.
Philipp Werner, Investor at Redstone. Based in Berlin, Redstone takes a focused approach with specialized investment teams for each strategy. It was founded in 2014 and has also built a proprietary startup analytics and data platform, SOFIA.
Samarth Shekhar, EMEA Lead at SixThirty Ventures. Samarth heads the EMEA presence of SixThirty Ventures, investing in B2B FinTech, InsurTech, HealthTech & InfoSec startups. SixThirty is a global firm, backing the most promising tech startups, and collaborating with them to grow successful businesses.
Stanislav Ivanov, Founding Partner at Tera Ventures. Since 2016, Stanislav has been leading Tera Ventures as a Founding Partner. The firm, based in Tallinn, is an internationally-minded firm backing founders at pre-seed and seed stage. It has 12 active investments in its first fund.
Iryna Krepchuk, Investment Analyst at Trind VC. Iryna’s goal is to support ambitious high-impact projects. A seed-stage fund, Trind focuses on European software startups with a consumer or community component and was founded in 1999.
Stephan Wirries, Partner at Ventech VC, a global early-stage venture capital firm with offices across Europe and Asia. The firm has deployed over €900 million to fuel a digital future through entrepreneurship. Founded in 1998, it’s made over 200 investments.
To learn more about the event, and the other fantastic things going on, check out our dedicated event page and enjoy the video below, which will give you some insights into what’s to come.
OUR EVENT SPONSORS
Silicon Castles is a Tech Company Builder and Strategic Business Accelerator for technology, intellectual property and licensing businesses, located in Salzburg, Austria. The focus is on European Diamonds: technology startups with a unique business idea, scalable technology and outstanding intellectual property. Silicon Castles also organizes the Startup Executive Academy (SEA), an international Go-to-Market program for founders and executives of early-stage startups, taking place annually since 2017.
Vanta is the easy way to achieve compliance certifications such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, and more. Over 4000 fast-growing companies trust Vanta to automate their security monitoring and get ready for compliance audits in weeks instead of months. Simply connect your tools to Vanta, fix the gaps on your customised dashboard, and then work with a Vanta-trained auditor to complete your certification. And for a limited time, EU-Startups readers and attendees of the EU-Startups Summit will get $1,000 off Vanta. Just go to vanta.com/eustartups to get started.
EPAM is the foremost global digital transformation services provider – leading the industry in digital and physical product development and digital platform engineering services. Through its innovative strategy; integrated advisory, consulting, and design capabilities; and unique ‘Engineering DNA,’ EPAM’s globally deployed hybrid teams help make the future real for clients and communities around the world by powering better enterprise, education and health platforms that connect people, optimize experiences, and improve people’s lives.
Airwallex is a global payment and financial platform for modern businesses. It removes the unnecessary friction and cost inherent in the traditional financial system to help entrepreneurs achieve their global ambitions. Leading companies around the world trust Airwallex to manage everything from payments, treasury, and spending to embedded finance — all in one single platform. With an international footprint across the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America, Airwallex connects entrepreneurs, business builders and creators with opportunities in every corner of the world, and empowers them to grow without borders.
Italdesign is a state-of-the-art customer-centric, method-based company serving both traditional OEMs and newcomers in mobility, product and transportation design worldwide. It’s capable of influencing market changes with innovative designs and technologies and serves as a hub able to interconnect different sectors and expertise and integrate advanced technologies and services thanks to its technical and strategic partnerships. The 1000+ Italdesign professionals are providing an integrated set of methods, techniques and tooling aiming to the industrialization of new products, while providing services for every phase, from the initial idea to series production, including the turnkey process.
ACCIÓ – Catalonia Trade & Investment is the Catalan Government’s agency that works to attract foreign investment to Catalonia, promoting the region as an attractive, innovative and competitive business location for startups. Check out their offerings and the Catalonia Startup Directory.
