Meet The 3 Barcelona Startups That Dominated Startupbootcamp XL

Last week, Startupbootcamp HighTech XL held their final selection in Eindhoven with some fantastic startups from all over the world. Having to whittle a selection of 5000 startups down to 10 is no easy feat and with such high-caliber teams, they ultimately decided to make room for eleven. We are feeling proud as Barcelona is home to 3 of the 11 chosen finalists to enter the renowned accelerator in November.

Guus Frericks, CEO of Startupbootcamp HighTechXL says that he’s been amazed at high standards of these small disruptive startups.

“It was a very difficult choice for the 85 mentors who came to Eindhoven to help us select. 21 teams were invited from 9 countries. We realized early on that you have to actively search for teams if you want to find the best. It is no good just opening a website and hoping that people will turn up.”

“We started by combing through 5000 companies registered in the 8 broad areas that fit our program. But then it quickly moved on to contacting teams directly to get a better understanding of what they are doing and what stage their product has got to. We talked with 850 companies in this round. Not everyone is ready to be accelerated at the intense pace we operate at. It demands a tremendous effort from the teams to do in three months what would normally take a year. But, it our experience, no-one ever regrets their decision to move forward faster.”

On the pitch day in Barcelona, “Following a last minute collaboration with the Makers of Barcelona, my colleague Eric van den Eijnden, CEO of Dutch Expansion Capital, visited the city at the start of October together with two other members of the Startupbootcamp HightechXL Team – Victoria Martinez & Martijn Kuijer. I also want to acknowledge the invaluable local assistance we had from Aldo de Jong of Claro partners who helped us with introductions to MOB and gave expert guidance to spot very talented local mentors. He alerted us to the fact that the hardware startup scene is coming on stream in Southern Europe. But we were pleasantly surprised to see for ourselves how fast things are growing. As it turned out later, we’re delighted we made the trip.”

About Startupbootcamp XL

Startupbootcamp High Tech XL is the newest addition to the Startupbootcamp organization with its core focused on, oddly enough, high tech! (Nanotechnology, Clean Tech, Lifetech, 3D printing etc), Housed in the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven (which is commonly known as the world’s smartest square kilometer), the startups picked for the program will be led through Startupbootcamp’s legendary mentor driven program with access and connections to tech and scientific media, academic research and local business expertise. Furthermore, the High tech Campus is surrounded by offices from some of the biggest tech companies; Phillips, IBM and Intel to name a few. Did someone say acquire me?

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Here are the 3 Spanish startups that stole the show last week:

Watly Lively Water

Led by the uber-passionate Marco Attisani and a superstar team who have managed to get to the prototype stage on only €10k, Watly Lively Water has created a solar water purifier that uses an extremely simple process, while possessing a style that wouldn’t look out of place in design weekly. The process couldn’t be any simpler; the water in the purifier boils and is re-liquefied at a precise temperature hence killing all of the viruses and harmful bacteria. The process will separate metals from water, purify seawater and provide you with water with a perfect pH balance. The prototypes to follow will be much more advanced with wireless internet connections and electricity for remote villages. The team is extremely passionate about clean tech and we have a strong feeling they’ll be hitting a home run!

“I believe we’ve got the right team on board. And the eco-system in Eindhoven is great for getting our products to market so much faster. Remember that 70 percent of the earth is covered by water. Yet 40% of our land is dry. We intend to fix that imbalance in ways that are carbon neutral. And we want to tackle the problems associated with polluted water, because that kills more than 5000 people a day. This has to change” says Marco, CEO.

Green Earth Aerogels

Using waste materials from rice (rise husk), Green Earth Aerogels uses a process to convert them into Aerogels (nano structured materials with applications in energy efficiency insulation) which are subsequently sold on to companies and individuals who promote the use of green technologies. The innovative business uses production sites around the world, hence indirectly promoting food production (for the waste materials from agricultural production). Aerogels are know worldwide as the best insulator on the planet so by encouraging the use of these materials, Green Earth Aerogels is helping companies and individuals reduce their energy costs and fuel consumption.

Fortunato Cardenas, CTO and Founder explains “We see a huge future for aerogels, especially because they are so cheap and abundant. We’re making popular headlines because it’s easy to see how the insulating properties could be used in buildings or in fire fighting where high temperatures are so dangerous. But we also have experience in using these advanced materials in energy storage capacitors or clean energy plasma heat. Startupbootcamp HightechXL will help us build a clearer story and marketing strategy to get the word out and help our company scale.”

LKMD Project

A collaboration of 2 startups (Stalactite 3D & SpotA Materials) LKMD project has developed a liquid that enables high-resolution printing. Given that the market for low cost / high-resolution printing is in it’s infancy, LKMD have an exciting fight on their hands. CEO Joan Ravantós says ¨I found out about the Pitch Day that Startupbootcamp HightechXL was holding at Makers of Barcelona quite by chance. I almost missed it. But, the more I heard, the more we got interested in them – and they got enthusiastic about what we’ve achieved so far. We’ll be able to use our time in the Netherlands to build an international business and marketing strategy. We have to scale our product in order to be successful.¨

Guus Frericks concludes with a message to other hardware startups just hearing about Startupbootcamp HightechXL for the first time. “We’ll definitely be coming back to Spain. Remember we’ve only just started on this journey. And it is great for everyone when a plan likes this comes together”.

Congratulations to all of the startups chosen for the November 2013 class of Startupbootcamp HighTechXL in Eindhoven!