Foundum has set as its mission to match innovative high-growth entrepreneurs to private investors, advisors and service & funding providers in order to create thriving and successful entrepreneurial ecosystems. With its online matching platform they enable promising entrepreneurs to access resources and contacts with key stakeholders (ie investors, accelerators and partners) in a much more tailored way (you can request to join here). Although based in Barcelona, Foundum’s reach is global with members coming from near every continent. In order to better facilitate connections between the tech world’s various stakeholders, each year they host the invite-only Foundum Unplugged in Barcelona which seeks to bring together some top 300 movers and shakers of the international startup ecosystem. This year’s edition will be particularly pertinent for rising startups as entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to pitch to up to 100 Venture Capitalists, Accelerators and Private Investors with €5 billion of investment under management.
Unlike other events that center around pitching to a live audience, Foundum seeks to make these interactions more hands-on. Through their 1-on-1 matching sessions, startups will have the chance to engage in up to 10 personal, one-on-one investor meetings tailored to their current stage of development (Seed, Early, Expansion), sector & geographic focus. This year’s investor and accelerator line-up is particularly impressive with such names as ACTIVE Venture Partners, Index Ventures, DFJ Esprit, Bertelsmann BDMI, Earlybird, Kennet Partners, Mangrove Capital Partners, TechStars, Startup Bootcamp, Founders Institute & many more participating. There will, of course, be many other opportunities for startups to get in front of the investor community through the various networking opportunities throughout the event. Of course, learning will be on the program too with various round-tables and panels addressing such topics as What´s the future of VCs? and the Next Digital Trends. Finally,they also offer an optional ‘startup partner package’ which gives you the opportunity to demo at the event via a dedicated stand, to display your brand on event media suports, and the participate, if you choose, in an audience pitching session.
As mentioned, attending Foundum Unplugged is by-invitation only so email the organizers at info@foundum.com and fill-out your profile here by October 31st if you’d like to attend!