Shinephi, winner of the 2025 Catalan Startup of the Year award

12 Dec 2025

The 24 finalist startups presented their pitches over two days to a jury of investors and to the attending audience at Tech Spirit Barcelona, who voted live for the best projects based on their business model and technology.

The startup Shinephi was honored this Thursday as the 2025 Catalan startup of the year after winning the Catalan Pitch Competition organized by ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment, as part of Tech Spirit Barcelona. This is the 30th edition of this award, which has been granted annually since 1995.

The Catalan startup has developed a technology that optimizes the semiconductor manufacturing process through an imaging system integrated into the production line, serving as a metrology tool and enhancing existing tools by providing quantitative data.

The Secretary of Business and Competitiveness and CEO of ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment, Jaume Baró, was in charge of presenting the award. During the event, Baró highlighted "the high level of maturity of the Catalan ecosystem made it very difficult to choose a winner." According to the Secretary, "it is very important to recognize the work that the 24 startups are doing in raising capital." In this regard, he recalled that "we will support both the winner and the finalists to help change the world and make it much better in the fields of education, science, medicine, and the social sciences."

Specifically, the award recognizes the Catalan startup for its technology and impact. Shinephi was the most voted-for company in the Catalan Pitch Competition among the 24 finalist startups (out of nearly a hundred that had applied), which delivered several pitches to entrepreneurs in attendance and a jury of 10 venture capital investors who chose the best Catalan startup of the year. In a first phase, the audience chose 15 of the total finalists to advance to the final, where the investors ultimately chose the winning project.

During the competition, startup projects from the life sciences and health, digital technology, and industrial technology sectors were presented to enhance their funding opportunities. The following 24 companies participated in this edition of the Catalan Pitch Competition:

Health: 

  • Aurax
  • Avamotion
  • CellFlow
  • Nataly
  • Nehuera
  • OnecareAI
  • Polar NanoPharma 
  • Violet Pharmaceuticals

Digital technology:

  • Bether Talent
  • Buildlovers Technology 
  • Komsai BCN
  • Metascan
  • Nabla Education
  • Nobrac 
  • Rolldbox 
  • Somia Solutions

Industrial technology: 

  • Additive 
  • Aridditive 
  • Folgrid Technologies
  • Grasshopper Air Mobility
  • Methanol Reformer 
  • Poseidona
  • Shinephi
  • Torch Smart Urban Solutions

As part of Tech Spirit Barcelona, which is promoted by Tech Barcelona, the association representing Barcelona's digital and technological ecosystem, ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment also organized more than 600 pre-scheduled meetings between 90 of the country's most prominent investors and Catalan startups, to boost their fundraising efforts. In parallel, several roundtables have been held with representatives of Catalan companies and startups.
 

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