Entrepreneur and investor perspectives at the Valencia Digital Summit 2023

“VDS will transform Valencia into the global epicentre of tech innovation and put the Valencian ecosystem on the international map.” With these words, Juan Luis Hortelano, chairman of Startup Valencia, launched the latest edition of the Valencia Digital Summit (VDS2023). The benchmark international technology event hosted by the Valencian Community held its sixth edition on 26 and 27 October with two days that covered scaling opportunities and challenges faced by start-ups.

For the second consecutive year, Valencia, the City of Art and Science became a focal point for entrepreneurs from all over the world. 12,000 professionals from 91 different countries gathered in this iconic building to absorb the knowledge and experience of the more than 500 speakers who participated in the event. This figure further reaffirms that the Valencian capital is one of the most important centres of entrepreneurship in Spain, ranked third after Madrid and Barcelona according to StartupBlink.

In addition to entrepreneurs, the event also brought together more than 400 investors, who shared their advice and experience with attendees. Christhi Theiss, executive director of Debt Investments at BBVA Spark, attended the meeting and shared in an interview with Valencia Plaza the major financing agreements signed by the company, as well as the differential value that this BBVA unit brings to startups. He highlighted that in just a year and a half, BBVA Spark has invested more than 250 million in more than 800 startups, which makes this unit a strategic ally for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business. “Many of us are ex-entrepreneurs and we understand just how challenging it is to fundraise and grow […] With this solution offered by Spark, we are helping to give entrepreneurs peace of mind for much longer,” he said.

Recent investment news, challenges and opportunities arising from the Spanish ecosystem and the role of women in the sector were some of the other topics that were addressed during VDS2023, which spanned two intense days.

Overview of the entrepreneurial ecosystem

The current reality of the Spanish ecosystem was one of the opening themes of VDS2023. Darren Stauffer, VP Business Development at Dealroom, demonstrated with data the positive evolution of the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem. “In 2013, it was worth $13 billion [€12.19 billion] and it has now reached $160 billion [€109.6 billion],” he said, noting that Spain is moving in the same direction as countries such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom. He also highlighted that venture capital investment has tripled in the last five years to 13 billion dollars [12.22 billion euros], which makes Spain the sixth country in Europe in terms of the volume of this type of investment.

Despite this growth over the last five years, data from recent months point to a slowdown in venture capital. “It’s not a particularly good year in terms of investment, but the numbers we’ll see at the end of the year will be much higher than what we saw in 2018 and 2019,” predicts Aquilino Peña, founder and managing director of Kibo Ventures.

Iñaki Arrola, a partner at K. Fund, also agrees with these conclusions, and does not consider the slowdown to be negative. “Maybe the unusual years were 2020 and 2021 and now we are experiencing more representative years. […] In many situations, too much money is not a good thing,” he said.

This slowdown has made it much more difficult for startups to get funding. “We are more selective with capital: the bar has been raised for startups in terms of team quality, ambition and traction,” said Peña.

The importance of the role of women investors was also addressed at the event. “There is a major lack of female investors,” said Clara Pombo, corporate director of ClarkeModet. “We need to have more women interested and investing in Big Tech because then the investment in women-led projects will increase.”

From initial investments to international scaling

VDS 2023 also captured the insights of entrepreneurs, with the scalability of high-growth companies as one of its key themes.

Ann Hiatt, founder of Hipergiant Consulting, discussed the leadership skills that successful businesspeople display, and which entrepreneurs can also adopt. “Readiness to be misunderstood by the industry; ability to process substantial amounts of information in order to extract unique insights and identify opportunities that others are not seeing; thoroughness, i.e., being able to work at a consistently high level over a long period of time; and low emotional instability,” she said.

Anamaria Meshkurti, European partner at Unorthodox Ventures, recommended that entrepreneurs put as much effort into finding clients and partners as they do into finding investors. “If you don’t need investors, don’t use them. If you can manage by bootstrapping (growing without resorting to external funding), do it, and work hard to find partners and customers,” she explained. “If you find customers, you’ll be in a better position and investors will come to you.”

To increase customer numbers, many entrepreneurs turn to internationalisation. On scaling a business internationally, Ángel Alberich, CEO of Quibim, and Francisco Benedito, CEO and co-founder of ClimateTrade, shared with the attendees the challenges they faced when they took their businesses to the United States as well as tips for those entrepreneurs who want to cross the pond. “I strongly recommend that you have native speakers on the team to avoid cultural and conversational gaps and to identify new opportunities more easily,” Alberich said. Meanwhile, Benedito reaffirmed the importance of building good relationships: “Networking is key to working with large companies: of course, you have to sell, but it’s essential to forge good relationships within your industry.”

International startup competition

On the last day of VDS, the winners of the international startup competition were also announced.

Estonia’s Ender Turing, which helps call centres speed up quality control, advise agents and improve user satisfaction, was the winner of the seed category. Spain’s Cafler, a marketplace where professional drivers carry out any type of vehicle-related activity for the user, won the award in the growth category.

Two companies that, like the 600 startups from 48 countries participating in the event, showcase the opportunities available in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. With record attendance, the Valencia Digital Summit bids farewell until next year as a leading space where investors, founders and other players in the ecosystem can share their experiences and lessons learned in order to continue growing.