Cavli Wireless was awarded the “Esade Alumni & Banco Sabadell Prize for the Best Start-up of 2022’ by Esade Alumni and Banco Sabadell BStartup on Esade Alumni Start-Up Day. This start-up manufactures IoT cellular modules and combines IoT connectivity and data management in a single platform. The prize was awarded in recognition of the company’s global outlook and its innovative IoT solutions which offer companies the hardware, cloud data storage and connectivity with integrated telecom operators all from a single provider. Previous prize-winners include Wuaki.tv, Visualnet, Kantox, Wallapop, Red Points, Signaturit, Glovo, Exoticca, Psious and Colvin. 

“Cavli is delighted to receive this award from Esade Alumni and Banco Sabadell as the best start-up of 2022. It’s an indication of the impact and globalization that we are mapping out”, commented Tarun Thomas George, co-founder of Cavli Wireless, who received the award from the CEO of Banco Sabadell, Carlos Ventura. Fernando Zallo, director of Esade BAN, the network of business angels promoted by Esade Alumni, highlighted that “thanks to one of the four founding members of Cavli Wireless, Tarun Thomas George, a former student of the Esade Full-Time MBA, the proposal was presented at Esade BAN in 2020 where it caught the attention of thirteen investors who invested $415,000”. “Investors are convinced of the company’s good prospects in a sector where demand is booming and technology lowers costs for customers considerably,” added Zallo.

On Esade Alumni Start-Up Day, Carlos Ventura, General Manager and Director of Corporate Banking and Network at Banco Sabadell, said: "It is a pleasure to award the ‘Esade Alumni & Banco Sabadell Award for Best Startup of the Year’ to Cavli Wireless because it is an ambitious and truly global company that is making a very significant impact in the world of the Internet of Things and contributing to the evolution and modernization of the industry”. “We began to award this prize in conjunction with Esade Alumni in 2013, just when we were launching our specialized service for start-ups and we were pioneers in Spanish banking, which enabled us to experience the great evolution of the innovative ecosystem in Spain from the inside. Cavli Wireless and the award-winners of previous years are great examples of this growth and evolution”, Ventura concluded.

Ametller Origen, sustainable and circular production 

Esade Alumni Start-Up Day began with Josep Ametller, co-founder and CEO of Ametller Origen, who gave an overview of the history of this food company specializing in quality fresh and processed products from its inception to the present day, and presented the Agroparc project - a new model of sustainable and circular farming and food production planned for the town of Gelida in the Alt Penedès region, “a unique project of its kind in Spain”. Ametller emphasized “the importance of knowing about the product and having a quality product,” as well as focusing its future on “technification and training", because “we’ll have to adapt to a new paradigm with less water, higher temperatures and more inclement weather, which will greatly affect production”. “The good news is that the primary sector will be the protagonist, since demand will outstrip supply,” he said.

Investors, fashion and start-ups founded by women

This year’s Esade Alumni Start-up Day, entitled ‘Rethink, reinvent, rebuild', analyzed the role of investors in start-ups against the backdrop of a new economic cycle during a panel discussion with Carles Florensa, an Esade BAN business angel; Daniel Sánchez, founder and partner at Nauta Capital; and Borja Martínez, founding partner at Abac Capital, which emphasized that “good companies and good teams always find money”, and that “the most promising companies are created in times of crisis”, with regard to the present-day context.

The challenges of entrepreneurship in the fashion sector were also discussed by the founders and CEOs of Brava Fabrics, Twojeys, SAYE, Project Lobster and Pompeii, who addressed the role of the brand, which “must have a coherent basis” and the role of social media in brand building.

Start-ups founded by women and funded by Esade BAN – the Esade Alumni business angel network – were also present: Vottun, Born Rosé, Kanara Sportech, Dinbeat, Competize, Pack2Earth, WIVI Vision and Nanoligent were present.