Sunshine, the ocean, a huge yacht, several of Barcelona’s most influential investors and 10 hopeful startups. That was the recipie for Conector’s newest and most creative pitching platform of 2015.

It all started around the lunch table, as it often does in Spain. The Conector team had lunch with the company Charter&Dreams, and the idea of doing a startup-related project together first developed. Two weaks later there is a yacht full of entrepreneurs and investors at Port Vell in Barcelona.

“This is something completely new. That we bring entrepreneurs and investors together in a so small room, and in such an intimate space is very special”, says Elisabeth Martinez, the founding director of Conector Startup Accelerator.

The Barcelona startups chosen to pitch were companies that are moving towards a series A level investment round. Some of them have graduated from the Conector accelerator program and others were external.

Did you read this? Glovo Picks Up €2 Million in Funding While The Secret’s Out On Stuart

A great opportunity

One of the eleven companies picked for the #Yachpitch was eMMa, a mobile platform that allows customers to control costs and returns of their advertising campaigns. They had never been a part of something like this.

“This is totally new to us. We did not go through the Conector program, but we are happy to be part of this. We hope to close a round of €1 million to expand to Latam, with a special focus on Mexico and Brazil”, CEO of eMMa, Antonio Sánchez told Barcinno.

Also the Barcelona-brand MELLER that design sunglasses, pitched on the yacht.

“This is so cool, and different. We went through the Conector program and was invited. We hope to raise a round of 300.000 to expand to Germany, the UK and Australia”, says CEO of MELLER Sergi Benet.

It was an intense round of pitching and Q&A from the investors, and in total, it lasted for over three hours without breaks.

Conector says that the feedback from the investors was very good, and explains that several of the investors actually chose to come because of the original idea of having a yacht as a forum for discussion. So this kind of initiative may be the beginning of a new investment forum in Barcelona.

These are the Barcelona startups that attended the first #Yachtpitch. Barcinno promises to bring you the news if some of these pitches resulted in actual funding.

Nautal: Marketplace for renting boats.



Meller: Barcelona-brand that design sunglasses



Glassy: Social application created to record the activity and improve performance in board sports.



Chilikids: mobile apps that foster creativity in children and stimulate their learning from the games.



eMMa: Mobile platform that allows customers to control costs and returns of their advertising campaigns.



Pharmahero: Platform that lets you compare online pharmacies and let you buy everything online saving up to 50% on store prices.



Tu & Co: eCommerce for household products.



Qustodio: Security-tool to protect children surfing on the internet.



Notegraphy: Mobile application to redesign the way we write and share online texts through design.



Geenapp: Mobile development platform that allows people to own channels, to promote applications and make money from it.

Sorry, couldn’t resist 😉