The South Summit 2025 Startup competition in Madrid selected the 100 finalists from 23 different countries, setting an international record compared to the 16 nations in last year’s edition and reinforcing South Summit’s role as a global hub for entrepreneurship and innovation.
The 100 projects were chosen through a rigorous selection process from the more than 4,500 applications submitted this year, 83% of which came from outside Spain. Among the most represented countries this year are the United States and the United Kingdom, with 6 startups each, and Portugal with 4. Latin America continues to show its innovation potential, increasing its presence at the South Summit Madrid with 9 startup finalists from across the region, up from 7 last year. Spain, for its part, contributes 51 startups to the final stage of the Startup Competition.
This 14th edition of the Startup Competition is also notable for the maturity of the 100 startup finalists: almost half (49%) already generate sales or traction, while 32% claim to be in the growth phase and 6% are already established businesses. In addition, 37% have a turnover of more than $500,000, of which 23% turnover more than $1 million and 7% more than $5 million.
Among the 100 finalist start-ups at the South Summit Madrid 2025, 2 from Italy stand out: Soource from Bolzano, an AI-powered platform to automatically identify the best suppliers from a large database of companies, and Tiledesk from Galatina, an AI platform that enables companies to automate tasks and improve productivity by creating customised AI agents through a simple drag-and-drop interface, with no coding required.
In addition, one in four of the finalist projects has more than 20 employees and 70% of the start-ups have already raised more than half a million dollars in investments, of which more than half (52%) have obtained more than one million. 14% have obtained more than 5 million and 9% more than 10 million.
To select the 100 finalist start-ups, a jury of the world’s leading experts in the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem assessed factors such as the project’s scalability, funding, degree of innovation, attractiveness to investors or the quality of the human team. The finalist start-ups will have the opportunity to present their project to the most important leaders and players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, including companies and investment funds, as well as to get in touch with other start-ups and learn first-hand about the latest trends and technologies. (Pictured is a moment from last year’s award ceremony)
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