- South Summit Industry & Energy 2025 held its fourth edition at the BAT – B Accelerator Tower, bringing together leaders, corporates, startups and investors over two days to examine the future of the energy transition, industrial digitalization and new sustainable mobility solutions.
- Ainara Basurko, Provincial Deputy for Economic Promotion at the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, highlighted at the closing ceremony that “the international participation in this edition has been extraordinary: 95% of the startups come from outside Spain. This reflects the role Bizkaia is taking on as an open, connected and attractive territory”.
- María Benjumea, President and Founder of South Summit, noted that “around 360 people have come together here, 31% of them international, representing more than 40 countries. We have achieved our goal: we live in a global world, and we need a global ecosystem”.
South Summit Industry & Energy 2025, co-organized by South Summit and the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, concluded today its fourth edition. Over two days, the BAT – B Accelerator Tower became an international meeting point to explore the future of industry, energy and mobility. The gathering brought together leaders, entrepreneurs, global corporations and investors in a program that once again placed Bizkaia at the center of the conversation on competitiveness, innovation and technological transformation.
Throughout these two days, speakers and experts discussed the challenges of energy transition, the role of data in industrial competitiveness, advanced digitalization and new solutions for sustainable mobility. With a strong focus on innovation, the program highlighted the need to adopt collaborative models and emerging technologies to accelerate the decarbonization of the industrial landscape and improve efficiency across key sectors.
The event once again demonstrated the strength of Bizkaia’s entrepreneurial and industrial ecosystem, as well as its ability to attract international talent and projects. Attendees also took part in networking activities, visits to strategic hubs and sessions aimed at fostering new business opportunities and partnerships between startups, corporates and institutions.
During the institutional closing, Ainara Basurko, Provincial Deputy for Economic Promotion at the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, emphasized that “international participation in this edition has been extraordinary, with 95% international representation among the participating startups. This reflects the role Bizkaia is taking on as an open, connected and attractive territory.” Basurko also underscored Bizkaia’s role as an innovative territory, connected to global trends and committed to economic development based on collaboration and technology.
Industry and Mobility take center stage
One of the highlights of the second day was the session Powering the Future of Mobility, , led by Joe Haslam, Director of the Owners Scaleup Program at IE Business School, and Neil Du Preez, founder of MellowVans. They analyzed new models of urban mobility and the role of innovation in decarbonizing transport and logistics. Both experts shared their views on how electric solutions, operational optimization and more flexible business models can transform mobility and improve sustainability in cities. During his talk, Neil Du Preez stated that “there is no city in the world that doesn’t have congestion problems. And people increasingly demand faster delivery services, so the main pressure we face is to keep thinking about what we want the cities of the future to look like.”
Under the title Unlocking Value Through Industrial Data the spotlight also turned to the use of data as one of the key levers for the future of industry. Elena de Pablo, Innovation Director at EIT Manufacturing; Susana Barasoain, Manager at Functional Print Cluster; Jon Núñez, Project Manager at Advanced Manufacturing Technologies; and Santiago Vesga, Project Director at CITET, discussed how smart data integration, interoperability and a strategic approach to digitalization are essential to improve processes. All speakers agreed that “for smaller companies, the challenge is improving the efficiency of their processes, and for that, the proper use of data is fundamental. Larger companies, in turn, need to understand how to fit the use of their internal data into the market.”
María Benjumea, President and Founder of South Summit, closed the event by celebrating the success of this new edition of South Summit Industry & Energy, where “around 360 people have come together, 31% of them international, representing more than 40 countries. We have achieved our goal: we live in a global world and we need a global ecosystem.”
About South Summit
South Summit is the global platform that brings together all stakeholders across the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem to foster the development of business opportunities among them. Its flagship event is South Summit Madrid, co-organized with IE University, which over its fourteen editions has welcomed more than 42,500 startups. Through its Startup Competition—from which nine unicorns have emerged—more than 1,500 finalist startups have taken part, with a 90% survival rate and $19 billion in funding raised. Startups interested in applying to the next edition of the Startup Competition for South Summit Madrid 2026 can submit their applications until January 15, 2026.
After editions in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina, South Summit held its fourth edition in Brazil, also co-organized with IE University, in April 2025. This latest edition brought together more than 23,000 attendees from 62 countries, including over 3,000 startups, 800 speakers, and 900 investors with a combined investment portfolio valued at $215 billion. South Summit Brazil is already preparing its fifth edition, which will take place from March 25 to 27, 2026, in Porto Alegre.
