4YFN triples participation and quadruples the number of investors from its first edition

• Over 8,000 participants, investors, accelerators and incubators converged at the facilities of Fira de Barcelona on Montjuïc for three days
• 4YFN gathers steam after its second edition and draws public from GSMA Mobile World Congress
• The Innovation Market featured 235 exhibitors – startups and corporations – displaying their mobile prototypes, products and solutions
• The Founders & Investors sessions have generated 5.000 meetings between 250 investors and more than 450 entrepreneurs from around the world

March 4, 2015

4YFN, the international mobile startup event presented by Mobile World Capital Barcelona and GSMA as part of the Mobile World Congress program, closed out its second edition with over 8,000 attendees. This figure is triple the participation at the first edition, which saw 2,200 participants.

The Innovation Market, 4YFN’s exhibition area, boasted 235 exhibitors – startups, accelerators, and corporations – displaying their mobile products and innovations. 1.200 people attended the workshops organised at 4YFN. The event featured more than 160 hours of talks focused on the event’s three themes: Disrupted by Mobile, IoT (Internet of Things), and Digital Media. Andrew Creighton, president of VICE Media; Weili Dai, president and co-founder of the Marvell Technology Group and winner of the Gold Stevie Award as Woman of the Year in the technological sector in 2013; John Ploumitsakos, Senior Director, Product Strategy and Sales; Mike Curtis, vice-president of Engineering at Airbnb; and Philippe Botteri, a partner at Accel Partners, the fund that invested during the initial phases of Facebook, Dropbox, LinkedIn and Kayak, were some of the notable speakers at this edition.

More than 450 entrepreneurs and startups held meetings with over 250 investors, venture capital funds, and directors of innovation at Founders&Investors, a networking activity to foment interaction and relationships between them, and for the expansion of their projects. After the four Founders&Investors sessions a total of 5.000 meetings were held. Intel, Samsung, Caixa Capital Risc, Deutsche Telecom, Aqualogy, European Young Ventures, Barcelona Business Angels, and Tecnalia Ventures were some of the investors who participated in the activity.

4YFN Awards

Caravelo was the winner of the first 4YFN Awards startup competition. The judging panel recognised this Spanish project, aimed at travel agencies and companies, as the winner in the Disrupted by Mobile category, held on Monday.

The winners of the competition centering on IoT were London’s Hanhaa, which presented an innovative app in the courier services sector. Finally, the third competition, Digital Media, is underway at this time, with the winners to be announced at 18:00.

A landmark in mobile innovation

4YFN was the setting chosen by FIWARE to present the agreement between Telefónica, Orange, Engineering, and Atos to encourage Smart Cities to work in line with FIWARE platform standards. The project presents a simple and open route for the development of IoT projects.

4YFN was also the event chosen by Fon to present their latest developments – Gramofon and Wifi for Business- and to introduce a pilot test of the SICAFE (system of event access control and people management) project, in collaboration with Aditium and DeustoTech.

On the other hand, 4YFN also included the demo days of Telefónica Open Future and Startupbootcamp. The first one, featured pitches by representatives from 13 companies (from 5 countries) forming part of Wayra, Amerigo, Telefónica Ventures, and China Open Future, accelerators that belong to the Telefónica Open Future platform. The Startupbootcamp IoT & Data Showcase, meanwhile, shared the progress of the 10 startups that form part of its acceleration program.