4YFN opens the doors to its second edition, with talks by Airbnb, Eventbrite and Financial Times

• The international entrepreneurial community converges in Barcelona, reinforcing the city’s standing as a worldwide leader in innovation
• Caravelo were the winners of the first 4YFN Awards mobile startup competition
• Barcelona Mayor Xavier Trias; the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society at the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Víctor Calvo-Sotelo; the Business and Employment Minister for the Regional Government of Catalonia, Felip Puig; Economy and Knowledge Minister for the Regional Government of Catalonia, Andreu Mas-Colell, GSMA CEO John Hoffman; the executive vice-president of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Agustí Cordón; 4YFN Director, Aleix Valls; and the event’s chairman, Yossi Vardi, officially inaugurated 4YFN 2015

March 2, 2015

4YFN, the international mobile startup event organised by Mobile World Capital Barcelona and GSMA as part of the Mobile World Congress programme, opened the doors to its second edition, with a great response by attendees from the community of digital entrepreneurs. Local, national and international startups met with investment companies at a forum specially created for this purpose.

The first day of 4YFN revolved around the Disrupted by Mobile thematic axis, analysing how technology is revolutionising traditional businesses. John O’Donovan, technological director at the Financial Times, and Patrick de Laive, co-founder of The Next Web, kicked off 4YFN with a discussion on the future of the media and the publishing industry. Notable speakers during the day included Mike Curtis, vice-president of Engineering at Airbnb, and Renaud Visage, co-founder and CTO of Eventbrite.

The official inauguration ceremony featured Barcelona Mayor Xavier Trias; Víctor Calvo-Sotelo, secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society at the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism; Felip Puig, Business and Employment Minister for the Regional Government of Catalonia and Andreu Mas-Colell, Economy and Knowledge Minister for the Regional Government of Catalonia. They were accompanied by GMS Ltd. CEO John Hoffman; Jordi Puigneró, general director of Telecommunications and the Information Society at the Business and Employment Department of the Regional Government of Catalonia; Sònia Recasens, second deputy Major; City of Barcelona municipal manager Constantí Serrallonga; Kim Faura, general manager of Telefónica Catalunya; Albert Buxadé regional director Vodafone Catalunya; Agustí Cordón, executive vice-president of MWCB; 4YFN Director, Aleix Valls; and the event’s chairman, Yossi Vardi. All of them visited the 4YFN stands of ICEX, Banc Sabadell, Aquology, Fiware, Bayer, Israel, Caixa Capital Risk, Barcelona Activa + ACCIO, Wayra and Startupbootcamp.

Caravelo winners of the 4YFN Awards

Caravelo was the winner of the first 4YFN Awards mobile startup competition. From amongst the eight startups that presented their projects on the Audi Stage this afternoon, the judging panel awarded the Spanish proposal aimed at the travel and tourism industry

The arrival of the Imagine Express, workshops and Founders&Investors

The first day of 4YFN marked the last stop of Imagine Express, the hackathon in which 36 dreamers (12 developers, 12 creative professionals and 12 business experts) developed app projects on a train that rolled out of Barcelona on 27 February. After completing its Barcelona-Paris-London-Barcelona route, these entrepreneurs presented in Barcelona the projects that they developed over just 4 days.

The first session of 4YFN also featured workshops centring on Disrupted by Mobile. The day closed with meetings at Founders&Investors, a session at which entrepreneurs and startups met with international investment companies in order to obtain financing and to boost and expand their projects.

Three days for entrepreneurship

4YFN is offering a complete line-up of events tomorrow, the 3^rd, and on Wednesday, 4 March. Workshops, meetings between startups and investors, and two more sessions of the 4YFN Awards – one centred on the Internet of Things and the other on Digital Media – will be just some of the important events on the agenda.

Some of the top speakers listed for tomorrow, Tuesday, include Indiegogo CEO and co-founder Slava Rubin; Weili Dai, president and co-founder of the Marvell Technology Group; Dale Dougherty, founder of the magazine Make, creator and founder of the Maker Faire, and CEO of Maker Media; Alexander Izosimov, a member of the board at Ericsson; and Juanjo Hierro, technological director of R&D at Telefónica and director of the Fiware project.

On Wednesday 4 March 4YFN will feature Shazam CEO Rich Riley; VICE Media president Andrew Creighton; and John Ploumitsakos, director of online sales at Twitter.