Football and Lionel Messi took a backseat to innovation and entrepreneurship in Barcelona’s mindset on July 13th. Last Wednesday kicked off an exciting opportunity for investors, startups, and accelerators to meet and share ideas on the future of how we connect with each other. Barcelona played the perfect host for the XXI Fòrum d’Inversió in Barcelona, a day long expo that showed the best the world has to offer from the world of information and communication technology (ICT). Mar Pérez, the Executive Director of ACCIÓ Tel Aviv-Catalonia Trade and Investment, kindly invited Israel as the guest country to the forum. Krypton Venture Capital’s fund manager, Moshe Sarfaty, represented Israeli venture capital alongside Israeli counterparts as they took part in the conference. Sarfaty saw firsthand how Barcelona, the world’s first smart city, online slots continues to push the envelope to create a connected world. Catalonia and Israel both have long traditions of technological innovation, and Krypton looks forward to utilizing their unique investment model to nurture the technological advancements bursting forth in Catalonia.
Krypton, on behalf of the Israeli delegation of companies and investors, would be remiss if it were not to thank Oriol Sans, who emceed the event, and Rocío Flor for the seamless planning and execution of the day long event. They and the hardworking team at ACCIÓ planned a beautiful event that showcased the vast potential the startups of the Catalan region offer. Oriol and Rocīo made sure that everyone felt warm and welcome, and they did so with grace and aplomb.
The startups showed the high standard of talent that Barcelona provides in a series of one-minute pitches from 21 companies. These companies were selected from a pool of more than 100 candidate projects. The presenting companies truly captured the high quality, professional tone of the event. Additionally, Niv Abramovich, CEO of Krypton’s portfolio company Apprival, presented Apprival’s market intelligence platform. The assembled investors showed great interest in the platform, which helps its clients develop strategies and monitor how they stack up against competitors. Seeing the breadth of innovative ideas, Sarfaty and the other attendees look forward to learning more about the ICT companies who understand the importance of mass intelligence. Like Krypton, these companies strive to gain information from the masses to help people, businesses, investors, and governments communicate more effectively among themselves and to make better decisions.
ACCIÓ and the Catalonia Trade and Investment are not the only organizations working to bring Catalan innovation to the world. Krypton had the pleasure of meeting multiple other venture capital investors who see the vast potential in the Catalan start up community. Ignacio Puig Masllorens and Xavier Gásquez Rutes from Banco Sabadell took in the weekend alongside Sarfaty. As one of the largest banks in Spain, Banco Sabadell invests in their local entrepreneurs to bring Catalan innovation to the world. Krypton also had the pleasure of meeting Varun Dalal and Luis Gutierrez Roy from Telegraph Hill Capital. Realizing the synergies in our investment philosophies, Krypton and TH Capital look forward to a strong relationship with a common interest in the digital B2C market. Krypton also met with Ami Levin, the Minister Counselor on Economics for the Israeli Embassy. Both Krypton and Mr. Levin grasp the opportunity for collaboration between the Israeli and Catalan tech scenes, and we look forward to bringing them together.
Krypton relishes the opportunity to share its philosophy with the global startup ecosystem through each conference it attends. Sarfaty and the entire team at Krypton looks forward to furthering the relationships built at the conference and fostering innovation all over the world.
