Endesa : maintains its commitment to entrepreneurship and will take part in the new edition of “South Summit 2017”

• 'South Summit' is the leading startup conference in southern Europe, organised by Spain Startup and the IE Business School. For the fifth consecutive year, Endesa will take part in the conference, along with BStartup by Banco Sabadell and Google for Entrepreneurs.
• Endesa, as part of its open innovation model, has maintained its commitment to entrepreneurs as a source for providing solutions to meet the technological challenges of the future.
• Over 200 international speakers, investment funds, venture capital and business angels have already confirmed their attendance at the conference, which will be held in Madrid from the 4th to the 6th of October in the municipal space of LA N@VE.
• The 100 finalist startups have already been selected from among the 3,500 projects submitted from over 70 countries.

Supporting entrepreneurs. This continues to be Endesa's purpose for taking part for the fifth year running in South Summit 2017, the leading startup conference in southern Europe. This year it will be held in Madrid from the 4th to the 6th of October, in the same venue as the last edition: LA N@VE, the centre for inspiration, education and open innovation with which the city of Madrid hopes to transform the economic and social future of the community.

South Summit is organised by Spain Startup and the IE Business School and it will once be the meeting point for the newest startups with the main international investment funds and most innovative corporations, including, Endesa, which, once again is a global partner of the event, which exceeds its own figures every year. Over 12,500 people of 100 different nationalities attended the last edition, 6,700 entrepreneurs, 650 investors, of which, 150 were international and 450 speakers.

Endesa will once again have a stand in the area called market place, where all the other participants will meet and where it will present its initiatives related to entrepreneurship and the company's innovation model; an open model that promotes support for entrepreneurs to develop solutions that will enable the current energy model to be transformed.

This market place is also where the 100 finalist startups will meet, which South Summit has just selected from over 3,500 projects submitted to the Startup Competition, which is the largest number of contestants in all the editions. The one hundred projects have been submitted from participants of over 70 different nationalities, 49% of which are of Spanish origin.

The criteria taken into account to select the finalists includes five fundamental values: the innovation they provide to the market, the economic feasibility, the scalability of their technology, the human team behind the projects and if they are investable.

The countdown for South Summit 2017 has begun and once again the programme will focus on new disruptive technologies, analysing the impact of innovations on the main industries. Among the speakers that have already confirmed their attendance are Kei Shimada, director of innovation and Business Development at Dentsu, a leading company in innovation and Tal Morgenstern, one of the first Snapchat investors. Morgenstern is taking part in this meeting as a partner of the venture capital firm, Lightspeed, focused on investment in Israel, a country with a strong entrepreneurial culture at a global level. Antoinia Norman, a great defender of entrepreneurship as a key factor in the development of the economy and CEO of Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship South Africa will also take part in the conference. As well as Adam Kostyál, Senior Vice President of Listing Services in Europe at Nasdaq; Thierry Petit, Co-Founder & CEO of Showroomprivé; and Gonzalo Salazar-Simpson, a producer of films such as Ocho apellidos vascos or No habrá paz para los malvados.

In addition, the three-day meeting, which will create an environment designed to encourage the emergence of new startups in Spain, the arrival of more entrepreneurs to this country and the creation of an efficient network of investors, will end with the competition award ceremony. Endesa will form part of the jury which will be responsible for choosing the winning startups from different verticals and from the Grand Finale and it will award the first prize to the winner of the competition in the category of Energy & Sustainability.