Qilimanjaro participated in the fifth edition of RETINA event, to the meeting “Deep Tech”. Victor Canivell participated in the “The Deep Tech Opportunity: business creation” panel, alongside Borja Oyarzabal, CEO and founding partner of Tresmares Capital and Jesús Contreras, director of EIT Digital Spain.
This panel’s discussion focused on economic and entrepreneurial growth opportunities and the capacity of deep tech to build a sustainable model for the future in Europe.
While the European Commission is aware of the importance of a big market in Europe in order for the deep tech companies to strive, Jesús Contreras points out that we are still far away in competing as an ecosystem at the global level.
Nevertheless, the culture of entrepreneurship in the deep tech area is on the raise in the European Union and Qilimanjaro is a positive example.
Victor Canivell points out that “Quantum computing will represent a revolution in the technological sector, even if the impact will come in the next decade.” Therefore, Victor speaks of an impact that will create a new segment in the informational industry that will also have an economic impact in the industry in a transversal way and in the cybersecurity field in a specific way. These developments will lead to economic and geostrategic interests for the protection of the entire digital structure.
“ It is a new hardware it is a new software, is a total change in the system”
Victor Canivell, CBO Qilimanjaro
For the change to happen the discussion has to be directed also to how we can finance deep tech advancements.
At Qilimanjaro we are trying to maximize access to public funds at the national as well as at the European level, where the European Commission is making a big effort in supporting quantum startups with the Quantum Flagship Initiative. However, public funds are not enough, they are actually helping in the first steps but we need private funding to support a quantum company all the way through all its phases of development in order to mature and bring a product to the market.
The outcome of this panel is that we need constant support for the emerging deep tech startups and even if we do not have a strong ecosystem in Europe right now for deep tech, our strong point is that we have both public and private funds to support the emerging startups.
You can listen to the entire RETINA Event here (event held in Spanish). Victor Canivell’s intervention: min 1:20:54.
