Entrepreneurs representing five start-ups faced a grilling from teams of IESE MBA students on their firms' financial viability on Wednesday as the 4th Annual IESE Venture Capital Investment Competition entered its final day. The event kicked off on Jan. 19 when the six teams were handed the start-up companies' business plans for analysis.
The winning team consisted of five students from the MBA program, Pablo Bilbao Nales, Alan Burchell, Gonzalo Carriazo Hernández, José Mª Dot Escartín, and Margalida Vaquer Vicens. They will go on to compete against teams from other European business schools at an event in February.
The competition simulated the process that professional venture capital (VC) professionals undertake when evaluating start-ups for investment. To this end, nine VC partners representing Amadeus Capital, Iris Capital, Delta, Balderton and TVM judged the IESE MBA students' performance.
The VC partners evaluated how the MBA student teams interacted with the entrepreneurs during Wednesday's due diligence sessions, as well as other factors such as their presentation skills and the rigor of their investment decision.
The five start-ups that were vying for cash from the students' hypothetical venture capital fund were Kinamik, Tooio, Negonation Tractis, Iris Experience and BeRuby. Most of the fledgling companies are technology-based. For example, Kinamik is a software development company that notarizes data; Tooio is a mobile social network and Negonation provides identification and legal services online.
Barcelona Activa is sponsor of the IESE Venture Capital Investment Competition, which is organized under the patronage of Prof. Heinrich Liechtenstein.
