A US investor delegation explores cooperation opportunities with Catalan startups

A delegation of tech angels, venture capitalists, and accelerators from the United States visited Barcelona on February 21st as part of a European roadshow organized by ENRICH in the USA, a US based network of research and innovation centres and hubs.

Different Barcelona startups and entrepreneurs in the ICT, Health and Smart City fields were able to present their core assets and services to industry experts and explore cooperation opportunities.

The meeting, held at Catalonia Trade & Investment’s headquarters in Barcelona, was also an opportunity to see how their business models could be tested and adapted for the US market.

Elevator pitches and networking

Traveling with the delegation were representatives of 500 Startups, European American Enterprise Council (EAEC), Fox Business School, Green & Spiegel, Scalator Ventures, MassRobotics, LG Electronics, LightPath Technologies, NCura, Smart City Works, Prepay Nation and Virginia Tech.

After hearing the startups’ presentations, Blandine Chantepie-Kari, Vice-President of EAEC, one of the event’s co-organisers, stated that “we already knew about the amazing startups in Barcelona, and today we've met even more amazing startups and scaleups so it's very, very impressive. They are well-educated and ready to enter the US market”.

On the other hand, Ray Schuder, managing director and corporate venture capital at LG Electronics, participated in the event to look for external innovation possibilities for LG. “It’s been an interesting tour going through Europe in general, but specifically to Catalonia and Barcelona”, he said. Schuder went on to say that “I thought the presentations were very interesting and I found a few that there'll be follow ups to know more”.

ENRICH in the USA Roadshow in Europe

The meeting in Barcelona was part of the ENRICH Roadshow in Europe, a 5-day tour through European capitals (Brussels, Budapest, Lisbon and Barcelona) to showcase the US ecosystem and to meet European R&D entities and startups. The ENRICH network is promoted by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme.