The Spanish startup Lain Tech, based in the city of Pozuelo de Alarcón, western suburb of Madrid, was the winner of the SouthSummit25 startup competition. The project, which also won the Industry 5.0 category, is revolutionising the mining sector with the development of the E-LIX hydrometallurgical process, an innovative leaching method that enables the recovery of complex metals, such as copper and zinc, directly in the deposit itself through a totally sustainable electrochemical process. Through the exclusive use of electricity and a 94% reduction in carbon footprint, Lain Tech’s technology not only reduces operating costs compared to other methods, but has also succeeded in rehabilitating previously unprofitable deposits and extending mine life by 700%.
Four other prizes were awarded during the closing day: Miami-based American Bankuish was recognised as the ‘most disruptive’; Chilean Hera Materials received the award for ‘most sustainable’, while Catalan companies NeuralTrust and Remuner were honoured as ‘most scalable’ and start-ups with the ‘best team’ respectively.
The president and founder of South Summit, María Benjumea, praised all the participating start-ups on the last day of the meeting, saying: “The 100 finalists are champions. In these days we have seen impressive projects, you are in charge of revolutionising the world. You are not the future, you are the present’.
“This edition of the South Summit brought together thousands of startups, investors and entrepreneurship experts in an unstoppable movement of talent, ideas, business models and investment opportunities globally. More than ever, the world needs the courage of entrepreneurs and innovators responding to the new challenges we face. We will continue to promote entrepreneurship in the next editions of the South Summit in Madrid, Brazil and Korea and to create spaces where we can access more funding for entrepreneurship. All this in a context in which artificial intelligence is transforming the entrepreneurial ecosystem,’ Juan José Güemes, vice-president of IE University, which co-organises the event now in its 14th edition, said in a note.
During the closing of SouthSummit25, the South Summit Kids Competition award was also presented, organised in collaboration with Genyus School, a company and methodology pioneering entrepreneurial education for children and young people, whose aim is to encourage entrepreneurial spirit from an early age and to valorise the innovative talent of projects developed by children and educational centres. The prize went to the Alcaste – Las Fuentes school in Logroño (La Rioja) for its Smart Cart project, an intelligent trolley that improves the supermarket experience. Equipped with a tablet and an app, it allows users to scan products, display useful information such as allergens, price, calories, expiry date, organise purchases, control the budget and reserve items, thus promoting healthier, more efficient and connected shopping.
In addition to Iain Tech in Industry 5.0, it is worth mentioning that yesterday the winning start-ups per vertical of this 14th edition of the event were announced. Thus, from Barcelona, NeuralTrust emerged as the winner in the Trust tech & data category; Remuner, also from Barcelona, was awarded in the Future of work & talent category, while Trialing Health, also from Barcelona, won in the Health category. In the Climate tech & sustainability category, Hera Materials from Chile emerged as the winner, while Hoop Carpool from Madrid triumphed in the Mobility & smart city category. Another Madrid-based company, Kuikads, won in the Digital & tech solutions category, while in the Consumer category, Portugal’s Manie won and in the Enterprise category, San Francisco-based Sharpei from the US won. Finally, American Bankuish was the winner in the Fintech & insurtech category.
The closing of the South Summit Madrid 2025 was marked by the meeting between Ed so Hoo, CTO of Lenovo, and Nacho Mateo, CEO of South Summit, focused on how to be a leader in a changing and increasingly demanding environment. For Lenovo’s CTO, ‘normalcy is over. We live in an era of constant transformation characterised by geopolitics, sustainability, artificial intelligence and the redefinition of leadership. Every day you have to climb a mountain and be able to know how to do it,’ emphasising the need to align strategy and tactics to meet today’s challenges.
In this new paradigm, details are more important than ever. “A leader must train new leaders. The traditional way of leading, that of doing it from the top, no longer works. The leader is the one who is in the last place, pushing everyone else,’ says Hoo. For his part, Nacho Mateo focused on the personal challenge of leadership in times of high speed, assuring that “we live in a world that goes faster and faster and we all feel that we have to adapt constantly. The question is: how do we do that, not only as professionals, but as leaders? The most important thing for a leader is to always maintain trust in his or her team’.
Also as part of this last day, Enrico Letta, former Italian Prime Minister and current Dean of the IE School of politics, economics and global affairs at IE University, moderated a conversation with Simon Schaefer, founder and CEO of The Factory, and Rupert Schaefer, General Partner of 10x Foundersin which he sent a clear message to the European business community: ‘A common pattern in the European entrepreneur is to have a great idea, start developing it, and then go to the land of dreams, which is the United States. What we need to achieve is that you want to stay, because here we have the possibilities to compete with the US. We have the talent and the ideas to make the leap from start-up to big company from here’.
Another highlight of the final day was the session ‘From deeptech innovation to scalability’, which was attended by Teresa Riesgo, Secretary General for Innovation at the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities; Manuel Escolano, Director of Open Innovation at Ferrovial; Esperanza Torralva, Director of Innovation at Moeves; and Natalia Álvarez, Head of Innovation at Repsol. During the meeting, public and private initiatives to promote technology transfer were presented, from funds such as Invest to open innovation projects or corporate investments in deeptech and sustainability.
All participants in this session agreed that innovation only expands when there is real and sustained collaboration between government, business and knowledge centres. They also emphasised the importance of aligning technological developments with industrial and societal needs and engaging in co-creation models that integrate all actors at an early stage. The need to reduce regulatory barriers, share risks across sectors and foster entrepreneurial talent from university to the productive fabric was another point of agreement among them, while the combination of smart financing, shared vision and coordinated leadership was presented as the way to transform knowledge into economic and social impact.
This fourteenth edition of the South Summit Madrid, at which attended by more than 600 speakers, 150 investors from all over the world and 19 unicorns, consolidates Madrid as a European reference point for entrepreneurship and innovation. This was emphasised by Ángel Niño, Deputy Mayor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the Madrid City Council, assuring that ‘from the City Council we want to highlight the sandbox, the largest in Europe . We are pioneers in having such a large test area that positions Madrid as a benchmark in attracting talent. We are looking for entrepreneurs to come to Madrid and stay there’.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©