This fair is supported by CIBER-SHUBE, a project co-funded by the National Institute of Cybersecurity (INCIBE), an entity under the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function, through the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, and the University of Salamanca.

This project is part of the Strategic Projects in Spain, in the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, with funding from the Next Generation-EU Funds.

From 26th to 28th June 2024, the Andalucía Lab headquarters hosted the first edition of Startup OLÉ Marbella '24, the new entrepreneurship and technological innovation event held in the Malaga town. This initiative managed to connect entrepreneurs, startups, and scaleups with investors, corporates, public administrations, media and other agents of the international ecosystem, in an environment conducive to doing business and generating synergies, with a climate, culture and quality of life that continues to attract entrepreneurs and investors from all over the world.

To this end, Startup OLÉ Marbella included, among others, forums for investors and corporates, cybersecurity (CIBER-SHUBE), accelerators, public administrations, media, universities and a hackathon, among others. It also featured exclusive content with great speakers at round tables and plenary talks, a startup fair, pitch competition, business rounds and networking activities including cocktail parties, making Marbella the epicenter of entrepreneurship and investment at the highest level. In total, the event brought together close to 1,000 attendees, some 250 speakers, more than 100 startups and more than 50 investors/corporates.

The first edition of this fair had the support and participation of corporations and investors such as Iberdrola, Enagás, Oracle, la Bolsa (BME), Fundación Once, Talgo, RTVE, Global Super Angels Club, K-fund, Encomenda Smart Capital, GED Conexo Ventures, Unirisco, Core Angels, Pinama Inversiones, Punch Capital, Runway Investments, Bewater & Indexa, Keiretsu Forum, Eoniq. fund, Startup Investor Accelerator, Salamanca Tech, Martram Ventures, Blast Spain, Across Legal, Mana Tech, Black Horizon, Banc, Stalobut, Anywr or Bcombinator, among others.

In terms of public institutions, Startup OLÉ Marbella received the resounding support of the main entities that support the ecosystem, including Junta de Andalucía, Ayuntamiento de Marbella, Instituto Nacional de Ciberseguridad (INCIBE), CDTI, Enisa, ICO AXIS, Universidad de Salamanca, Ayuntamiento de Salamanca, Andalucía Lab, Comunidad de Madrid and Universidad de Jaén.

In addition, incredible international speakers participated, such as Andreas Mihalovits, co-founder of Global Super Angels Club; Francisco Marín, Partner of GED Conexo Ventures; Borja Cabezón, CEO of Enisa; Ángeles Múñoz, Mayoress of Marbella; Ramón Herrera de las Heras, General Secretary of Universities of Junta de Andalucía; Pilar Carrato, CFO of CDTI; Javier Artiach, Founder and Partner of GED Conexo Ventures; Pedro José Martínez, Councillor for Economic Promotion, Commerce, Markets and Youth of Ayuntamiento de Salamanca; Javier González Navarro, Director General for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship and Continuing Education of the Department of University, Research and Innovation of Junta de Andalucía; Carlos Blanco, co-founder and Managing Partner of Encomenda Smart Capital; Ronny Eriksson, investor of New Nordic Way; Kira Negron, CEO of Saudi Business Council; Juanjo Mostazo, Business Angel & Venture Partner of K Fund; Christian Rasmusson, CEO of The Pool Marbella; Mercedes Storch, investment manager of ICO AXIS; René de Jong, owner of Runway Investments SL and Ali Parandeh, startup mentor, among others. Emilio Corchado, CEO and founder of Startup OLÉ, acted as master of ceremonies for the event.

All these speakers addressed topics such as the role of accelerators in the success of startups; trends in Business Angels Investment; corporations as drivers of startups; current opportunities for investors; collaboration between the public and private sector; the keys to success for the growth of entrepreneurs; the role of science parks and universities in the ecosystem; the role of the media in the dissemination of innovative ideas and projects; the opportunities presented by the Saudi Arabian ecosystem; the impact of new technologies, such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, on the current landscape and the digitisation of the rural world.

In addition, a pitch competition was held, in which EDTEK emerged as the big winner of this competition; COBIOMIC and PROSFY came second and third, respectively. These three winning startups received tickets to participate in a European event to be confirmed by CIBER-SHUBE; interviews on the national Startup OLÉ and international Startup OLÉ Iberoamérica radio programmes; and free access and stand tickets for Startup OLÉ Salamanca '24, to be held from 8 to 10 October, and Startup OLÉ Miami '25, to be held from 24 to 25 March. The first place winner also received a direct pass to the pitch competitions at Startup OLÉ Salamanca and Startup OLÉ Miami '25. In addition, the initiative 'BIODAIVERSE', by Jesús Sancho, won the student pitch, receiving free access and a direct pass to the student pitch to be held at Startup OLÉ Salamanca '24. It should be noted that, during the event, the startup FastStreaming, the first startup certified by ENISA from Costa del Sol, achieved a success story by signing an agreement with Ayuntamiento de Alhaurín el Grande for the Digitalisation of the Villages of Malaga.

INCIBE's strategic projects

INCIBE's particular mission is to boost the cybersecurity capabilities of society and the economy in general through a programme that seeks to promote and generate knowledge and its transfer to the productive sector, especially by establishing synergies between the social and economic spheres of cybersecurity. To develop this purpose, the programme of grants for the excellence of advanced research teams in cybersecurity was launched in 2018. In 2022, specifically on 5 December, in order to give continuity to this strategy, the public invitation for collaboration in the promotion of Strategic Cybersecurity Projects in Spain was published.

These initiatives are part of the Global Security Innovation Programme, included in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) through Component 15. Investment 7 Cybersecurity: Strengthening the capacities of citizens, SMEs and professionals and boosting the sector.

Strategic projects are a way of providing concrete solutions to some of the greatest scientific and technological challenges facing our society and economy. They are designed to promote the application of the results of research and innovation, combining new forms of governance and collaboration, as well as involving citizens and the productive and social fabric.