The next edition of the South Summit Madrid will generate an economic impact of more than 39 million euros, 13% more than in 2024, and an average expenditure per visitor of 1,899 euros (21% more than last year). This is one of the main conclusions of the report ‘Socioeconomic Impact of South Summit in Spain 2025’ prepared by PwC.
María Benjumea, President and Founder of South Summit says, as already anticipated in her interview with Startupbusiness: “In addition to continuing to attract and generate business and global reach, our focus this year is on promoting growth. We need bigger companies and startups in Europe, which is why one of the main novelties at this year’s South Summit is our Growth Camp, a meeting point for those shaping the innovation of tomorrow.”
The presentation of South Summit 25, which will take place at La Nave in Madrid from 4 to 6 June under the slogan In Motion, was opened by the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, who described the meeting as ‘Madrid’s best window on the world in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship’. South Summit is an example of how a city can reinvent itself and gather the necessary talent in the best conditions for entrepreneurship . We are firmly committed to accompanying South Summit on this journey and to continue our work to consolidate Madrid as an ecosystem of international importance, where those who arrive with a dream find the support they need to realise it.”
South Summit Madrid 2025 is also positioned as a key driver for employment and international attractiveness, with the report predicting the creation of more than 3,443 jobs for the 2025 edition (a 14% increase over 2024), and 58% of participants expected to come from outside Madrid.
In this regard, Diego del Alcázar Benjumea, CEO of IE University which organises the event, emphasises that “at IE University we share the international vision of the South Summit and the commitment to positive impact through the development of global and diverse talent and the promotion of entrepreneurship in academia. We believe in knowledge, excellence and innovation and set them in motion to transform the world”.
For his part, Rocío Albert, Minister of Economy, Finance and Employment of the Community of Madrid, said: ‘We witness the results and share a success story; a story of how to become a benchmark in innovation and entrepreneurship by creating vision, image and future’. María González Veracruz, Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, said: “Investing in innovation and entrepreneurship means building a fairer, more modern and more cohesive country, a better country . It is my duty to reaffirm once again my commitment, as we already do through our investments and presence, to South Summit, to entrepreneurship and start-ups, and to all of you who make possible the growth of Spain and its transformation into an economic engine within the OECD. An essential commitment to the movement and an example of how, together, with the support of public administrations and the drive of private companies, we can create powerful synergies of value.”
The year 2024 marked a positive turnaround after global startup investment fell by 38% between 2022 and 2023. Last year, the volume of global investments in start-ups increased by 10% to USD 337 billion of capital raised, according to the PwC report.
In particular, ecosystems such as Latin America demonstrated resilience and growth, with an 8% increase in investment volume from 2023 to 2024, while Spain stood out significantly, recording a 35% increase and reaching an investment volume of EUR 885 million. In fact, Spain’s growth is in stark contrast to the broader trend in the rest of Europe, which saw a 9% decrease in investment volume over the same period.
Alberto Tornero and Jordi Esteve, partners at PwC Spain, explain that this investment rebound ‘is largely due to an improved macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, together with a soft economic landing driven by lower interest rates and investors prioritising funding rounds in more mature companies’.
At the national level, the average size of investment rounds increased by 58%, mainly due to a 66% increase in megarounds. The volume of investments also grew by 35% and foreign investments in Spain increased by as much as 134%, compared to a 14% increase by domestic investors.
In this context of increasing investment in startups and growing internationalisation, South Summit Madrid 2025 is set to further strengthen its role as a platform to foster growth, collaboration and global expansion for entrepreneurs. This theme is also confirmed in the words of Carmen del Campo, CIO of Mutua Madrileña, and Iñaki Berenguer, managing partner of LifeX Ventures, who agree that South Summit is a space where talent shines and a platform to stimulate the birth of scaleups in Spain, connect with international entrepreneurs and investors and stay at the forefront of technological innovation.
The Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem has shown a clear territorial expansion in the last year, with significant progress in several provinces. While Madrid and Barcelona remain the main hubs for entrepreneurship, cities such as Bilbao, Valencia and Malaga also maintain a strong presence within the ecosystem. In particular, Madrid hosts 28% of all start-ups in the country and 34% of investors, while Barcelona accounts for 51% of the total investment volume.
Once again, Madrid has strengthened its position as a hub for entrepreneurship both nationally and internationally, ranking first globally among emerging ecosystems and third in terms of exits, totalling EUR 4.2 billion. Furthermore, in 2024, Madrid recorded more than €821 million in investments (a 6 per cent increase over 2023) and its almost 11,000 startups employed around 1.5 million people last year.
In a landscape dominated by big cities with Madrid and Barcelona leading the way, Palencia has emerged as a new hub to watch. Despite having a limited investor and start-up base, the city has risen to prominence thanks mainly to the EUR 225 million funding round raised by the company Zunder.
The findings of the report ‘Socioeconomic Impact of South Summit in Spain 2025’ not only support the economic and employment impetus generated by the event, but also highlight its direct influence on the hundreds of start-ups that compete each year in the various editions of the Startup Competition to be recognised as the world’s most innovative project.
Since 2012, the 1,381 startup finalists that have participated in South Summit events around the world have raised a total of EUR 17.651 billion in investments, achieved an 85 per cent survival rate and generated 110 exits. In particular, South Summit Madrid’s Startup Competition has seen 1,062 startup finalists raise EUR 12.206 billion in investments since 2021.
In 2024 alone, the South Summit Madrid finalist start-ups raised more than EUR 311 million in combined investment after participating in the event, a 63 per cent increase over the capital they had secured before participating.
This effect is even more pronounced for Spanish start-ups, which almost doubled their investments (+92%) after reaching the finals of the South Summit Madrid 2024, reaching a total of EUR 196.5 million, of which about one third (EUR 31.1 million) went to Madrid-based start-ups.
The South Summit Madrid 2025 will be supported by the Secretariat of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, the Community of Madrid and the Madrid City Council, as well as Mutua Madrileña, Google for Startups, BBVA Spark, Wayra – Telefónica Innovation and BStartup del Banco Sabadell.
The 14th edition of South Summit Madrid 2025 (of which Startupbusiness is media partner) will feature leading global exponents in the field of innovation, including: Greg Hoffman, the mind behind the evolution of the Nike brand and one of the world’s most influential experts on branding and corporate creativity; Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix; and Dennis Hong, UCLA professor and world-renowned robotics expert.
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