The Speak App, Leemons and Upsan, winners of the 2023 Entrepreneur Award

THE SPEAK APP company wins the first prize "Entrepreneur of the year 2023", LEEMONS wins second prize and UPSAN wins third prize
In addition, 11 companies have been awarded with different second prizes.
The total amount of the prize, 100,000 euros, has been distributed among 14 companies

This afternoon, the Condeduque Contemporary Culture Center hosted the award ceremony for the Entrepreneurs Award 2023.

The main objective of this award is to contribute to the recognition of original, creative and innovative projects undertaken by women to promote and boost the female entrepreneurship, as well as the generation of employment and increased economic activity in the city of Madrid, helping to eliminate the existing gender gap.

The 2023 Emprendedoras Award is one of the Madrid City Council's lines of recognition for the work of women entrepreneurs. The total endowment It amounts to 100,000 euros in different prizes, in addition to other contributions in kind. This award is nationwide.

The gala

With a room full of businesswomen and entrepreneurs, Maria Estrella Martin Martin, general director of Entrepreneurship of the Madrid City Council, welcomed and highlighted the relevance of this award to promote and recognize female entrepreneurship.

In turn, he thanked the companies sponsoring the award for their commitment and generosity in the endowment.

Finalists and winners

The councilor of the Delegated Area of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the Madrid City Council, Mr. Angel Niño Quesada has delivered the three “Entrepreneur of the year 2023” awards.

The first prize, with a financial award of €20,000, has been for THE SPEAK APP, a tool to overcome the fear of speaking in public for young people between 12 and 17 years old, so that they have opportunities to develop in different areas.

The second prize, with a financial award of 15,000 euros, has been for LEEMONS, the company that has developed an open source platform to digitize learning processes in schools and universities.

And finally, the third prize of this edition, with a financial award of €10,000, has fallen on UPSAN, a tool for using medical video consultation in the expert field, managing to implement video expertise in a telemedicine context.

In his speech, Ángel Niño highlighted “the innovative talent of women and their contribution to the creation of wealth and employment in the city of Madrid”.

Niño has stressed the importance of “making female talent visible so that new generations have mirrors to look at themselves and are inspired when it comes to betting on their ideas and dreams.” "There are already thirteen editions that have been held with this premise, and our objective is to maintain the commitment in the coming years," he noted.

The delegate has called to “not settle” and “continue working so that all professional women with an idea dare to take the leap and undertake.”

second prize

In addition to these main prizes have been awarded 11 second prizes, with a financial endowment of 5,000 euros each:

The winner of the accesit to the youngest entrepreneur has been MIA BAKERY, a production, distribution and sales company of artisanal pastry products, handmade with organic and local ingredients. Also nominated in this category: HANDERVET and FITPLANET .

The winner of the accesit to the entrepreneur Madrid has been BOOKS, the editorial workshop dedicated to telling stories through paper and specialized in sensitive books with engineering and pop up. Also nominated in this category were: THE ECO CHEF and BINÔME ATELIER.

The accesit to the entrepreneur of the innovation and/or entrepreneurship centers of the General Directorate of Innovation and Entrepreneurship has been for EIRA FOODS, a brand that produces agri-food products based on olive oil. Also nominated in this category were: KULTUR and AMABABY.

The winner of the accesit to the entrepreneur with the best elevator pitch has been VIOLET PORTÉ MVP, the first Spanish and sustainable fashion brand for people living with diabetes, with compatible designs for insulin pumps. Also nominated in this category: BOOKS and PHARMA LEADERS TALENT.

The winner of the accesit to the entrepreneur with the project with greater growth potential and international projection has been for TUCOMEX, advice, consulting and training in all areas of foreign trade. Also nominated in this category were: SPIQUER and ETRIVIUM.

The accesit to the entrepreneur with the best project in the technological field has been for SPIQUER, SaaS that democratizes professional video for business communication inherent to the 21st century, creating video communications in a simple and professional way. Also nominated in this category: ALLZONE and BLINDSTAIRS.

The accesit to the entrepreneur with better project in the field of the orange economy has relapsed into ESPINAS EDITORIAL, a feminist, independent and personal publishing project, focused on recovering, republishing or publishing, for the first time in Spain, works by forgotten writers. Also nominated in this category were: KULTUR and KIETOPARAO.

The winner of the accesit to the Entrepreneur with the best project in the field of health and well-being has been PERIOD, a brand of menstrual panties to reduce the environmental impact generated by the use of pads, panty liners and tampons. Also nominated in this category: AMABABY and TRAIN YOURSELF FOR BUSINESS.

The accesit to the entrepreneur with the best project in the sector Food Tech has been for PROTIBERIA, company biotech which develops productive processes to obtain protein from the Tenebrio Molitor insect, intended for animal consumption. Also nominated in this category: EIRA FOODS and VINAI.

The winner of the accesit to the entrepreneur with the best project in the sector HORECA has been SYLOCOMO, an application that makes it easier for people with allergies and intolerances to find establishments adapted to their needs. Also nominated in this category were: MIA BAKERY and ACCOMMODATION MADRID.

The winner of the accesit to the entrepreneur with the best project in the sector STEM has been CREATION OF ILLUSTRATIONS, ANIMATION, VIDEO SCIENCE, scientific communication project through the creation of illustrations, animations and video games to communicate science visually. Also nominated in this category were: BLINDSTAIRS and DATHUM.

Stake

Regarding participation, we highlight the good figures of this edition, to which 213 companies have participated. Of all the participating companies, a total of 46 projects have been finalists and have competed for the 11 second prizes and the 3 main awards.

This is the 13th edition of this award, which was launched in 2011. Since then, a total of 1,624 entrepreneurs have participated and 56 companies have been awarded.

Members of the jury

This year's jury was made up of:

María Estrella Martín Martín, general director of Entrepreneurship of the Madrid City Council
Gricell Garrido Colón, representing the Spanish Association of Businesswomen
Pablo Batlle Mercade, representing the Madrid Hotel Business Association
Francisco José Blanco Jiménez, representing the Rey Juan Carlos University
Javier Peña Rojas, representing Onda Madrid
Lucila Ballarino Forzani, representing Womenalia
Alberto Villar Ibáñez, representing PwC Spain
Héctor Alcaide García, representing IBM

Both the jury and the organization thank all the companies for participating in this 13th edition of the Entrepreneurs Award.

Here we offer a small sample of what the gala was, but you can consult the full album and the live video of the event.