4YFN closes its 4th anniversary edition with a record number of attendees

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March 1, 2017

4 Years From Now (4YFN), the startup business platform of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, has closed its 4th and most international edition with more than 19,000 attendees, over 60% more than in the previous year. A staggering 47% ventured over from GSMA Mobile World Congress, with over 69% of attendance being from abroad. Female participation increased substantially as the rate has increased by 7%, reaching a record 37% in total.

4YFN also announced on Monday that the event will be organised for the first time in America as part of Mobile World Congress Americas, in partnership with CTIA.. Aleix Valls, CEO of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, emphasised “the positive reaction of the global entrepreneurial community, which has already expressed its interest in the new 4YFN San Francisco edition”. In addition, Valls also remarked on “the growth of the event in Barcelona, as well as the multitude of activities that 4YFN encompasses over the year, thanks to its presence in Shanghai, Tel Aviv and now in San Francisco”.

The closing of 4YFN Barcelona, organised by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, in collaboration with GSMA Mobile World Congress, featured more than 600 startups, large corporations and accelerators within its innovation market. Of note was the presence of national and international delegations from France (La French Tech), United Kingdom (Trade Fair UK Pavilion), Israel (Intel Corporation), USA (City of Bellevue), Argentina (Fundación Exportar), Colombia (ProColombia), Sri Lanka (ICT Agency of Sri Lanka), Pakistan (Vimpelcom), Kuwait (Brilliant Lab), Taiwan (Industrial Technology Research Institute) and South Korea. Barcelona Activa, the Catalan and the Spanish pavilions, have also counted within its own space more than 80 startups.

The event gathered over 700 international investors that participated in the Founders & Investors pitching sessions, witnessing over 200 startups pitching their businesses in the hope of gaining future investment.

The networking activities for startups have also hosted the Pitch the Press sessions, a “speed dating” activity between entrepreneurs and media. With 4 sessions throughout the event, 2,400 meetings took place and were attended by journalists from CBS Interactive, Business Insider, Tech.eu, The Next Web, and Tech Crunch, among others.

4YFN Awards 2017

The 2017 edition of the 4YFN Awards has awarded WeFarm (London), hu:toma (London) and TheMotion (Madrid) in the “Disrupted by Mobile”, “Internet of Things” and “Digital Media” categories, respectively. The winner of the Disrupted By Mobile Award created an application for farmers in remote areas that provides information to improve the management of their fields, while winner of the IoT track presented a marketplace platform that creates, motivates and encourages learning through chatbots. TheMotion, winner of the Digital Media Award, provides a platform allowing companies with digital assets to create multiple video adds for the products in their catalogue in a quick and easy way.

A 360 programme

Terry von Bibra, Global Manager EMEA of Alibaba, Michael Spiegelman, Director of Product Innovation for Growth & Acquisition of Netflix, Fernando Fanton, CTO of Just Eat, and Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group, were the main keynote speakers of 4YFN. In addition, the event featured presentations from Nicola Mendelsohn, Vice President EMEA of Facebook, Josh Quittner, Editorial Director of Flipboard, Jonas Gumny, CSO of MyTaxi, and Harper Reed, PayPal’s Next Gen Commerce.

4YFN also included demo days by Numa Barcelona and StartupBootcamp IoT&Data, both of which were supported by mVenturesBcn, the Mobile World Capital programme to promote the creation and growth of digital startups and enhance the ecosystem. The Hack_D_Gap Global Challenge, part of the Women4Tech programme at 4YFN, gathered startups from 16 countries driving forward gender diversity in the digital sector.