Galactica Final Event and EBAN Impact Summit: A Breathtaking Finale to the Galactica Project

Ladies and gentlemen, the Galactica Final Event and EBAN Impact Summit have officially concluded with a bang! The energy was palpable at the stunning World Trade Center in Barcelona, Spain, where a two-in-one event took place on February 16-17. With attendees from over 30 countries, the #Networking buzzword truly describes this international gathering of European angels and VCs dedicated to impact investing.

16th February

Kicking off the day was an information session about Galactica’s impact, best practices, and funding opportunities across various industries. The event boasted a lineup of brilliant speakers, such as Josep Casamada Ribot, Océane Le Bot, Giulia Francioni, Virginie Perron, Julia Vercher Alemany and specifically focused on the Aerospace Sector, Javier Leiva Rojo, Árisz Kecskés, Mario Vesco and Fabrice Testa.

But the excitement didn’t stop there! The event followed with keynote speeches that delved into fascinating topics such as investing in DeepTech, the intersection of sectors in innovation, and building the world we love with SpaceTech. After a networking break, the five selected orbital projects took the stage, presenting their pitches and answering questions from the jury members Fabrice Testa, Annukka Mickelsson and  Albert Colomer I Espinet. The projects- Ampere (Dr Sara Correyero Plaza); Iroony (Anne Reboux); MVRPT (Vasilapostolos Ouranis), NOC-STRUT (Matthias Krödel) and SolarCybe (Alessia Gloder) – had the potential to shape the future and were a part of the first Galactica beneficiaries batch.

After lunch, Lluís Juncà, the Director General for Innovation, Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship at Generalitat de Catalunya explained how the Catalonia region drives impact entrepreneurship and investment.  

In the afternoon, Lutz Walter (ETP)  presented about Innovation trends in the textile industry and participated in a round table of 5 textile experts around Sustainability and circularity in the textile industry. To cap off the day, the five selected Pioneer projects –  ABEP Kreios Space (Adrián Senar Tejedor); BiomX (Karin Fleck); CertBLOC (Frank Kottler); Impact protection using green composites (Nélson Oliveira) and RCF (Marina G) – presented their pitches, with the jury team composed of Fabrice Testa, Annukka Mickelsson and Marco Nannini.

But what about the awards, you ask? GALACTICA distributed €74k in prizes for the best pitches and posters presented at the final event. The EBAN team congratulates the projects for their excellent work: 

1. Poster runner up aerospace: IDD (Pedro C.); 
2. Poster runner up textile: Circular Functional Cleantech Textiles (Jo-Anne Godden); 
3. Poster winner: Robocork (Ramon Escobar Galindo); 
4. Pioneer pitch runner up aerospace: ABEP Kreios Space (Adrián Senar Tejedor); 
5. Pioneer pitch runner up textile: rCF (Marina G.).; 
6. Pioneer pitch winner: Impact protection using green composites (Nélson Oliveira); 
7. Orbital pitch runner up aerospace: Ampere (Dr Sara Correyero Plaza);
8.  Orbital pitch runner up textile: Iroony (Anne Reboux) and 
9. Orbital pitch winner: SolarCube (Alessia Gloder).

To wrap up this first day in style, the CEO of Tech Barcelona, Miquel Marti, extended a warm welcome to EBAN’s team for an unforgettable and electrifying cocktail party at Pier 01 Barcelona Tech City!

17th February

We kicked off Day 2 with some inspiring welcome speeches from Michael Donaldson and Juan Alvarez de Lara. But that was just the beginning – the theme for the day was “Impact Investing in Europe, the Business Angels perspective”, and the speakers lineup was nothing short of amazing! Lisa Hehenberger, Annukka Mickelsson, Marco Nannini, Alex Farcet took the stage, moderated by Juan Alvarez de Lara himself, to discuss the ins and outs of impact investing in Europe. And if that wasn’t enough, we were treated to an enlightening talk by the Former Minister of the Environment of Finland, Sirpa Pietikainen, on how the new taxonomy is changing green finance. 

After a refreshing networking break, we dove into the world of “Impact Investing: VC in Europe” with some fantastic speakers, including Jaume Iglesies, Vera Elizabeth, Elena Rico, Teresa Guardans, and moderator Eva Hernandez. We learned that Europe still has some work to do to build a strong impact on the investor-VC community, but progress is being made. Increasing the number of impact-VCs will also encourage more business angels to invest in impact startups. But wait, there’s more! 

We also had a “Corporates committed with Impact Investing” session featuring Clara Navarro, Marta Oller, and Ramón Lopez Roldan. This session delivered an important message that corporations are ready and willing to innovate their products, services, and business models by partnering with impact startups. However, there’s still a need for more education on how to make these collaborations work for everyone involved. To top it all off, we were honoured to have Sir Ronald Cohen grace the stage with his speech on “Impact trends: future of sustainable finance after cop27”. It was the perfect conclusion to an unforgettable day filled with insights, ideas, and inspiration.

The EBAN events are a must-attend for anyone interested in the content, networking, and top-notch knowledge sharing. Don’t miss out on the next EBAN event – pre-register today here and join us in shaping the future!

The above video was produced and edited by our project partner POLE EMC2.

Event partners:

 ACCIÓ 

Seed&Click

Project Partners:

• ASSOCIACIO AGRUPACIO D’EMPRESES INNOVADORES TEXTILS
• ASOCIACION DE EMPRESARIOS TEXTILES DE LA REGION VALENCIANA
• NEXT TECHNOLOGY TECNOTESSILE SOCIETA NAZIONALE DI RICERCA
• WACHSTUMSINITIATIVE SUDERELBE AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
• Corallia
• POLE EMC2
• FUNDACION CORPORACION TECNOLOGICA DE ANDALUCIA
• European Business Angel Network 
• Science Park Graz GmbH
• PRODUTECH-ASSOCIACAO PARA AS TECNOLOGIAS DE PRODUCAO

About GALACTICA

GALACTICA stimulates the creation of new industrial value chains across the advanced manufacturing, textile and aerospace industries. Entrepreneurs will learn about the opportunities and innovation potential of cross-fertilization and win a total of €4 000 000 in grant capital. This project has received funding from the  European Commission under grant agreement No 872336. More information about the project can be found here: Galactica | Project (galacticaproject.eu)