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IE Business School’s best start-ups have received 20 million euros of funding over the last five years through Venture Day events organized by IE around the world to promote entrepreneurship. The latest Venture Day, held at the Rafael del Pino Foundation building in Madrid, saw ten finalists present their projects to a panel and audience comprised of international investors and entrepreneurs.

“CANARD Drones” was the winning start-up of the Venture Day Madrid event. The start-up offers a smart, fast and cost-effective calibration of navigation aids on landing runways at airports. In order to achieve this the system uses planes that are controlled remotely instead being manned by crews, saving hundreds of millions of euros in maintenance costs for airport management.

Participants in the event included Meinrad Spenger, founder and CEO of MÁSMÓVIL, who gave the keynote address.  Spenger shared lessons learned during the setting up of MÁSMÓVIL and from his experience as an entrepreneur. “It was at IE that I had my first contact with entrepreneurs, and that’s what gave me the idea that one day I could set up my own business”, said Spenger, an IE Business School MBA graduate. “MÁSMÓVIL is a story about unique growth, going from a turnover of zero to one of 1,100 million euros in just 10 years”.

The main panel of the event was centered on “Women in Start-ups and Venture Capital.” Members of the panel included Sonia Fernández, partner of Kibo Ventures, Lourdes Rivas, founder and CEO of GearTranslations, and Joe Haslam, professor of entrepreneurship at IE.  “One of the key obstacles facing women entrepreneurs is that of securing funding,” said Allison Rohe, associate director of the IE Venture Lab Accelerator.

The Venture Day events run by IE Business School promote entrepreneurship, a key value of the School. The events are held in Spain and worldwide, with recent editions being held in cities that include Tel-Aviv, Dubai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Lima, Tokyo and Toronto.

A marked focus on entrepreneurship has been a hallmark of IE since its inception in 1973. All IE students learn about entrepreneurial management and draw up business plans under the guidance of a team of experts who transform their plans into business projects. The School’s International MBA is ranked No. 8 in the world by Financial Times and No. 1 in Europe for entrepreneurs. IE shapes leaders who promote innovation and change in organizations by means of global vision, an entrepreneurial mindset, and a humanistic approach.

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