Spidey TEK wins Venture Day Madrid 2025

Spidey TEK, a startup building the world’s first plant-based spider-silk production platform to address one of the biggest challenges facing global industries—finding materials that are stronger, lighter, sustainable, and affordable without requiring changes to existing manufacturing processes—has been named the winner of IE Venture Day Madrid 2025, an event organized by IE University to recognize the top startups created by the institution’s entrepreneurial students and alumni. Spidey TEK also received the IE Sustainability Award.

Neirion, which took second place in the competition, is a maritime-safety startup developing a wearable wristband that instantly detects man-over-board incidents. Agrori, winner of the third prize, has introduced a digital procurement backbone designed for small and medium-sized farmers in Latin America.

This edition also marked a record presence of five undergraduate teams among the finalists, highlighting the strength of IE University’s early-stage entrepreneurial pipeline. In addition, the Google Cloud Award for the best AI startup was presented for the first time and went to Next Automation, recognizing the growing impact of artificial intelligence across the IE entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Venture Days reinforce the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of IE University, connecting students and alumni with international entrepreneurs and investors. The December 2025 edition featured the participation of students from the academic institution, as well as four teams from the acceleration programs of the IE Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center in Baku and Kuwait.

"In the age of AI, increasing students want a future-proof career, and many are turning towards entrepreneurship. At the same time, AI is helping democratize startup acceleration. In the Venture Lab at IE University, we are now scaling acceleration like never before, with over 150 teams joining the Lab every semester", said Paris De L'Etraz, Managing Director of IE Venture Lab.

IE Business School has been ranked the 3rd best business school in the World’s Best MBA Programs for Entrepreneurship 2025. IE Business School also received the MBA Best In Class Award for Artificial Intelligence 2025 a few weeks ago, through which Poets & Quants recognizes the school’s leadership in training executives who are prepared to tackle the challenges of a world transformed by technology.

The winners of IE Venture Day Madrid December 2025 in the different categories were:

• 1st prize: Spidey TEK
• 2nd prize: Neirion
• 3rd prize: Agrori
• IE Sustainability Award: Spidey TEK
• Best International MBA Team: Izana
• Best IE University Undergraduate Team: BabyNb
• Best Master in Management Team: Quant Plutus
• Best IE School of Science and Technology Team: OneLP
• Best Alumni Team: LiNBA
• Best Global Pitch: Brailleiance
• Google Award: Next Automation
• Crowd Vote: Agrori