4YFN celebrates its fourth anniversary announcing the first American edition of the event

• 4YFN Barcelona 2017 started today with the participation of 600 startups and 700 international investors
• Day one included presentations by Fernando Fanton (JUST EAT), Dov Moran (Grove Ventures), Harper Reed (PayPal) and Terry von Bibra (Alibaba)
• WeFarm, a British platform to help and connect farmers living in remote areas, is the winner of the first category of the 4YFN Awards 2017

February 27, 2017

4 Years From Now (4YFN), the global business platform for the growing community of startups promoted by Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital) opened today the doors of the fourth edition of the event that it promotes in collaboration with GSMA Mobile World Congress. The birth of 4YFN San Francisco, the first American edition of the event, was the main announcement of the opening ceremony held by Yossi Vardi, Chairman of 4YFN, and Aleix Valls, CEO of Mobile World Capital Barcelona.

From today until Wednesday 1 March, 4YFN Barcelona will be represented by all the players in the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem, reaffirming its role as an international meeting point for startups, investors and large corporations. The Innovation Market, the exhibition area of the event, has been filled with activity thanks to the participation of more than 600 startups and 700 investors. Of note is the presence of national and international delegations from France (La French Tech), United Kingdom (Trade Fair UK Pavilion), Israel, USA, Argentina, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Kuwait and Taiwan, which have also begun their programmes at the event.

The programme of the first day of the 4YFN event has revolved around the theme of Disrupted by Mobile. Terry Von Bibra, Global Manager EMEA of Alibaba, Fernando Fanton, CTO of JUST EAT, Harper Reed, Next Gen Commerce of PayPal, Zach Weisfeld, General Manager of Microsoft Accelerator, and Dov Moran, Managing Partner of Grove Ventures, were some of the featured speakers of the day.

Throughout the day, nearly 40 sessions and workshops were held, including ‘The Best And Worst Mistakes Startups Make When Dealing With The Media’, moderated by Robin Wauters, Founding Editor of Tech.eu. The panel also included the participation of Ravi Mattu, Editorial Director of Financial Times, Josh Quittner, Editorial Director of Flipboard, Mike Butcher, Editor at Large of Techcrunch, Patrick de Laive, Co-founder of The Next Web and Maurizio Pesce, Tech Editor of WIRED Italy. To further enhance the relationship between media and startups, Pitch the Press sessions (speed dating between journalists and entrepreneurs) were also started today with more than 500 meetings.

The institutional visit was led by Ada Colau, Mayor of Barcelona and President of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, Jordi Baiget, Minister of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Jose María Lasalle, Secretary of State for the Information Society and the Digital Agenda, and Aleix Valls, CEO of Mobile World Capital Barcelona.

The entourage visited the stands of ICEX, ACCIÓ, Barcelona Activa, SORACOM, Banc de Sabadell, Telefónica Open Future_, La French Tech, Nestlé, SEAT, Smart Venture Institute and Mobile World Capital Barcelona.

WeFarm, first winners of the 4YFN Awards

WeFarm has won the first startup competition of the 4YFN Awards, which have recognised the most innovative project in the field of mobile technologies. This British startup has created a platform that helps and connects farmers living in remote areas.

Tomorrow’s 4YFN Awards will feature prizes for the best startup focused on IoT (Internet of Things). On Wednesday, the last edition of the Awards will recognise the most innovative startup in the Digital Media category.

IMPACT GROWTH, a new acceleration programme presented at 4YFN

IMPACT, FIWARE Foundation and MWCapital have launched a new acceleration programme, IMPACT GROWTH, a new acceleration program with a fund of €3.6 million and the final aim of identifying four European super startups. In the first stage of the program, IMPACT GROWTH will finance 28 startups with €100,000, equity free. Led by ISDI and FundingBox, this initiative is also supported by ISDI, Accelerace, Kibo Ventures, Invesdor, Danone, Ferrovial, DOCOMO Digital and MADE, among others.

4YFN: three days of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology

The 4YFN activity continues tomorrow, Tuesday, with presentations from speakers such as JP Rangaswami, Chief Data Officer of Deutsche Bank and Marcus Weldon, Chief Technology Officer of Nokia. Startupbootcamp IoT&Data demo day will also be held. This is one of the acceleration programmes promoted by mVenturesBcn, a MWCapital project which supports the creation and growth of digital startups.

Hack_d_Gap Global Challenge, promoted by Women4Tech at 4YFN, will be one of the most outstanding spaces of the day. This GSMA initiative will begin with a session on Diversity in Tech Ecosystem and continue with the final of Hack_D_Gap Global Challenge. Finally, the programme will include an interactive workshop on ‘How to create balanced teams’, which will address the creation of teams in the near future.

Featured speakers on Wednesday 1 March include Michael Spiegelman, Director of Product Innovation for Growth & Acquisition of Netflix, and Nicola Mendelsohn, Vice President EMEA for Facebook. The day will also include the holding of NUMA Barcelona demo day, another of the acceleration programmes promoted by mVenturesBcn.