The Europe-Latin America Tech Champions Event is being held at the Mobile World Capital stand to take a close look at the European Tech Champions fund for scale-ups and opportunities in the Latin American entrepreneurial market.

The world’s largest mobile phone and connectivity event is once again being held in Barcelona. The Mobile World Congress will be taking place from 27 February to 2 March to present the latest trends and developments in the industry, along with an extensive programme of talks and round-table discussions with experts and companies from this ecosystem.

One of these is being organised by Barcelona City Council, together with the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and Adigital, the Spanish Digital Economy Association, at the Mobile World Capital stand on 28 February, at 3.45 pm. The Europe-Latin American Tech Champions Event: from scale-ups to Latin American tech start-ups, led by various experts in this area, will look at future opportunities for scale-ups and Latin American tech start-ups (tecnolatinas).

New tools to drive the creation of Tech Champions

The first part of the event will look at the role of funding and public-private investment in the growth and consolidation of European tech companies. These companies have increased in scale and competitiveness at a global level and, in the race to lead the market for certain technologies and digital services, European funds can be key.

Various European and national institutions, such as ENISA and ICO in Spain, have launched specific funds for European start-ups experiencing major growth. This first part, with Oscar Farrés, Head of VN Digital Economy, European Investment Fund; José Carlos de Quevedo, chair of the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), and Jordi Romero, co-founder of Factorial. will look at how the European Tech Champions initiative will help drive these companies. The conversation will be moderated by Carina Szpilka, chair of Adigital and directing partner of KFund.

The opportunities scale-ups and Latin American tech start-ups offer 

The Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem doubled its value in 2022 and includes scale-ups competing internationally, 25 of which are considered unicorn companies. Meanwhile, Spain is emerging as one of the main innovation hubs for artificial intelligence in Spanish, representing a major opportunity for internationalisation and acceleration for Latin American start-ups.

In the second part of the event, Cristina Gallach, special commissioner for the Alianza para la Nueva Economía de la Lengua, and Pau Solanilla, commissioner for City Promotion at Barcelona City Council, will have a conversation on this topic. A round-table discussion will follow, moderated by Esteban Campero, head of Economy and Companies at the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), in which founders such as Felipe Navío from Jobandtalent and Fernando Manjarin from the Quales Group will be offering their points of view.