Pau Sarsanedas, co-founder and CEO of GPAINNOVA, has received the Young Entrepreneur Award that is awarded annually by AIJEC, the Association of Young Entrepreneurs of Catalonia, and which recognizes him as the best young Catalan entrepreneur of the year. Sarsanedas was chosen ahead of Josep Dosta and Jordi Romero, also finalists in this edition.
The gala, held this Thursday, coincided with the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of AIJEC, which has been promoting leadership and entrepreneurial talent for four decades and giving a voice to the country’s young entrepreneurs.
AIJEC is rewarding the career of Pau Sarsanedas, co-founder and CEO of GPAINNOVA, a multinational group founded in Barcelona in 2013 that develops advanced engineering solutions in areas such as metal surface treatment, the marine industry, New Space, medical devices, power electronics and industrial adhesives.
The jury valued its ability to diversify and consolidate a group with an international presence, with innovation and engineering as the central axes of its growth.
Madequa, Best Business Initiative Award
The Best Business Initiative Award of this edition recognizes Madequa Health, a company founded by three entrepreneurs who seek to improve women’s health during menopause through natural treatments with scientific support.
The jury highlighted the combination of innovation and scientific rigor, with protocols specific to the pharmaceutical sector, which allow the development of safe and effective solutions for the different stages of menopause. With the collaboration of more than 50 professionals from different medical specialties, the startup has developed specific treatments for the three stages of menopause (pre, peri and postmenopause), designed to alleviate visible symptoms and prevent long-term complications that affect women’s health.
The Best Business Initiative Award has the support of the Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium. Madequa Health has prevailed over Pets & Vets, the first all-in-one digital platform for veterinary management and animal welfare, and Truecold, a technological project that optimizes the cold chain on a global scale using IoT and artificial intelligence to reduce food and pharmaceutical waste.
AIJEC recognizes the business career of Joan Planes
During the event, AIJEC posthumously presented the Recognition for the Best Business Career to Joan Planes, founder of Fluidra, the Valencia company that has become a multinational of global reference in the swimming pool sector.
With this tribute, AIJEC wanted to highlight the entrepreneurial vision and innovative spirit of a businessman who knew how to transform a family project into a global giant, consolidating a model of success based on internationalization, research and commitment to the territory.
Other awards from the 40th Anniversary Gala of the AIJEC
The Recognition for Business Linguistic Quality of this Young Entrepreneur Award went to Bellmàs Enginyers / BIB GRUP, a local family business that provides rental, sale, maintenance and training services for self-propelled lifting platforms for all types of work at height, thus increasing safety, comfort and work efficiency.
The Recognition for Social Entrepreneurship, an award supported by CaixaBank, went to Coleo. The jury valued this technology company’s plans to change the textile industry with real solutions that add new value to waste, promoting circularity and traceability, using Artificial Intelligence, while providing jobs for people at risk of social exclusion.
The Recognition for Blue Entrepreneurship, of this Young Entrepreneur Award, went to Titanium Technology for its technological and sustainable contribution to the marine environment. Founded in 2019, the company has developed an innovative solution that prevents biofouling on submerged surfaces without the use of biocides or harmful chemicals, based on electrochemistry and titanium coatings. The jury highlighted Titanium Technology’s plans to promote cleaner, more sustainable and efficient navigation, thus contributing to the preservation of marine ecosystems and the reduction of the ecological footprint of maritime transport.
The Future Entrepreneur Award, an award that rewards the best entrepreneurial project developed by under-18s, and which is supported by the Princess of Girona Foundation, has gone to the Ecogrow project of the Montserrat school students who created the project when they were in the fourth year of ESO. The project, winner in Catalonia of the Junior Achievement competition, is an initiative that transforms organic waste, such as coffee grounds and leftovers from school canteens, into natural fertilizers, promoting sustainable agriculture and combating food waste.
A full auditorium to celebrate the Catalan young business community
The 32nd Young Entrepreneur Award presentation ceremony brought together more than 250 businessmen and economic and institutional representatives at the Casa Fuster hotel, consolidating itself as a reference event that recognizes young Catalan entrepreneurs.
In his speech, Vicenç del Mar Mullor, president of AIJEC, highlighted the organization’s trajectory over these four decades as a meeting point for values and collaboration among the community of young entrepreneurs. “For 40 years we have been committed to courageous and ambitious entrepreneurship. We are not satisfied with being just a country of SMEs, because we know that we have the talent and capacity to aspire to much more.”
He called for “opportunities and not obstacles” and expressed his concern about the recent announcement of an increase in the quotas for the self-employed, “a measure that penalizes SMEs and micro-SMEs, the heart of the Catalan business fabric.”
During his speech, the president of AIJEC insisted on the need for public-private collaboration as the key to building a stronger and more sustainable business ecosystem. “We believe in ourselves, the young entrepreneurs who work to improve our environment and the system in which we believe, and we want you to believe us too,” he asked the authorities present, among whom in the front row were the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, the Minister of Language Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila, and the former president of the Generalitat, Artur Mas.
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