Final countdown in Barcalona

Second Place for Liquavista at the Eurecan European Venture Contest

by Johan Feenstra

This week, we were part of the finals of the Eurecan European Venture Contest, which had its final in Barcelona. About 800 companies entered this series of events, organized by Europe Unlimited in March, more than 350 were chosen to present. Next, 100 companies were selected for the semi-finals and of these, 25 made it into the final. Counting down, therefore.

In the finals, we were asked to do a presentation of 8 minutes to a jury of investors. These were split into 3 strands: life sciences, cleantech and ICT. We were part (with 12 others) of the ICT section.  All strands came together when we all did a 1 minute pitch to all the jury members present. It’s fun to see how much difference there can be in the approach that people take to these pitches. The variety in presentation was further enhanced by the wide spread of (very interesting) companies present: ranging from highly efficient storage of energy, voice recognition for anti-terrorism to software for gesture recognition.

On the second day, 16 companies were asked to presented their 1 min pitch again and we were still part of it...

Then the final countdown: nr 3: Ash Dec Umwelt (Phosphate regeneration from wastewater).

And at nr. 2 and therefore also the best ICT venture of Europe: LIQUAVISTA!

A fantastic result for everyone at Liquavista, as this really recognizes the work we are doing, the rapid progress that has made and the enormous potential of the technology!

The winner overall was Biomodics with a preventive solution to infections. Guess we’re all hoping they will be in production soon!

On a final note: although the weather was pretty louzy, the cava was certainly worth the travel!