Pau Bermudez-Cañete, Suma Capital partner, formed part of the jury of the Ship2B Impact Awards, together with members of the investment community and strategic partners of this private non-profit foundation created by leaders from the social, business and investment world.

Ship2B works to develop the Impact Economy, a new economic model where the main objective of companies, investors and organizations is not only to maximize their economic profitability, but also their social or environmental impact.

Ship2B’s mission is to promote companies with high social impact through projects that seek to improve society by responding to social or environmental challenges by means of a profitable business model. In order to do this the foundation supports social entrepreneurs during their early stages of development through innovation and acceleration programmes, connecting them with large companies and impact investors.

The awards were granted within the remit of the 11th Ship2B Demo Day, held at ESADE Barcelona, to projects with the greatest social impact that aim further than economic profitability and leave a positive mark on society. The awards have broadened awareness of the advances made by start-ups supported by investment and acceleration programmes.

After reviewing all applications submitted, a total of 15 projects were chosen, 5 start-ups for each category, becoming part of the Ship2B ecosystem in the different LAB categories: Tech4Health (Technology and Health), Tech4Social (Technology and Vulnerable Collectives) and Tech4Climate (Technology and Environment).

The winner of the Best Project award was Solatom, a Tech4Climate company that manufactures solar steam boilers for industrial processes, with the objective of replacing fossil fuels with solar energy.

EthicHub, a Tech4Social accelerated project that has developed a crowdlending platform with blockchain technology to finance small farmers in developing countries, was chosen by the jury as the project with the greatest impact.

The Best Pitch award was granted twice, once by the public and once by the jury, to Sáncal Method, a training platform that combines neuroscience, music and technology to improve the cognitive capacity of people with various pathologies.