From Porto Alegre to Madrid: How South Summit 2025 Is Shaping the Future of Startups
South Summit Brazil 2025 has wrapped up its most international edition to date, cementing its position as Latin America’s leading event for startups, investment, and innovation.
Held in Porto Alegre from April 9 to 11, the summit brought together some of the brightest minds in entrepreneurship, featuring nine unicorn founders, more than 160 global investors, and thousands of innovators from around the world.
Co-organised by IE University and the Government of Rio Grande do Sul, this year’s edition revolved around the theme “Beyond Resilience”—a timely call to not only adapt to disruption, but to lead with purpose, sustainability, and innovation.
Record-Breaking Participation and Startup Highlights
This year’s edition attracted over 23,000 attendees from 62 countries, featured more than 3,000 startups, and welcomed 900 investors, reinforcing South Summit Brazil’s status as a major platform for business opportunities in Latin America.
At the heart of the event was the Startup Competition, which spotlighted cutting-edge ventures from around the world. Out of 2,100+ applications, 50 finalists from 11 countries competed across multiple categories.
Here are the standout winners from South Summit Brazil 2025:
Global Winner: Atacama Biomaterials (Chile) — Developers of Woodpack, a biodegradable, sustainable biomaterial made from recycled fibres and biomass to replace traditional plastic in packaging and containers.
Category: Sustainable Packaging | Spinout: MIT | Product: Woodpack (WPk)
Atacama is an MIT spinout developing sustainable polymers designed to replace single-use plastics with a lower-cost, zero-emission alternative. Their flagship product, Woodpack (WPk), is a recycled paper-based flexible film that delivers the performance of plastic while maintaining paper’s compostability and recyclability.
- Core Innovation: WPk is powered by an AI-driven formulation system that adjusts polymer recipes in real-time, ensuring consistent quality, reduced costs, and a minimal carbon impact.
- Energy Efficiency: WPk uses just 11% of the energy required to produce traditional plastics.
- Biobased Advantage: Unlike compostable plastics like PLA or PBS, WPk is made using a low-temperature polymerisation process, enabling true cost competitiveness and scale.
- Compatibility: WPk can be heat-sealed on standard packaging lines and coated with aluminium, plastic-free.
- Environmental Edge: 100% bio-based, home-compostable, and recyclable via conventional paper streams.
Impact: Atacama merges material science with AI to create high-performance, sustainable packaging solutions, tackling one of the biggest global challenges—scalable alternatives to plastic.
Most Scalable: Jusfy (Brazil) — An AI platform for lawyers that automates case management, legal analysis, and document drafting with predictive capabilities for judicial outcomes.
Jusfy offers several subscription plans (Starter, Master, and Ultimate) with varying levels of access to its features. The platform is web-based and accessible on computers, smartphones, and tablets. They have over 100,000 lawyers using their platform.
Most Disruptive: Nanogrow Biotech (Uruguay) — A biotech platform creating nanobody-based treatments for the pharmaceutical and veterinary sectors.
Nanogrow Biotech is developing biological treatments utilising its Single-Domain Antibodies (SdAbs) platform, combined with targeted formulations for effective therapies. SdAbs are smaller and simpler than conventional antibodies, which allows for better tissue penetration, reduced immunogenicity, and faster clearance.
These characteristics make them suitable for various applications, including topical biologics for autoimmune diseases, inhaled biologics for asthma, injectable biologics for chronic diseases, oral biologics for inflammatory bowel diseases, and gene therapy for the treatment of melanoma.
Their team is working through phases of target validation, discovery, lead candidate selection, and pre-clinical studies, as shown on their website. The company highlights that their expertise with nanobodies enhances their applications and maximises their value.
Most Sustainable: umgrauemeio (Brazil) — Creators of Pantera, an AI-powered system for early forest fire detection and real-time environmental monitoring.
Best Team: ALTAVE (Brazil) — Specialists in AI and video analytics for intelligent monitoring, asset safety, and labour protection.
ALTAVE’s solutions are designed to proactively identify safety risks, prevent accidents, reduce costs, and ensure regulatory compliance. Their intelligent monitoring systems contribute to continuous improvement and informed decision-making in heavily regulated sectors.
Additional category winners came from across Latin America and the US, covering Health, Industry 5.0, Enterprise, and Digital & Tech Solutions—highlighting the region’s dynamic and maturing startup ecosystem.
Up Next: South Summit Madrid 2025 – A Flagship for Global Innovation
With South Summit Brazil concluded, the spotlight now shifts to South Summit Madrid 2025, taking place from 4 to 6 June at La Nave. As one of Europe’s leading events for entrepreneurship, innovation, and investment, South Summit Madrid is a global meeting point for startups, investors, corporations, and thought leaders.
Since its inception in 2012, the event has played a pivotal role in shaping Spain’s and Southern Europe’s entrepreneurial landscape, helping startups scale, raise capital, and forge key partnerships.
Highlights from the 2024 edition include:
- 18,000+ participants from 133 countries
- 6,500+ entrepreneurs and 2,000 investors with portfolios totalling over €500 billion
- 26 unicorns and 6,000 corporate representatives in attendance
South Summit Madrid has a proven track record of startup success. Alumni include unicorns such as Cabify, Factorial, and JobandTalent. Finalist startups collectively have a survival rate nearing 90%, have raised over €17 billion, and have created nearly 60,000 jobs.
Why Attend?
- For Startups: A global stage for pitching, media visibility, investor access, and networking with top corporates.
- For Investors & Corporates: A curated gateway to high-potential startups and disruptive innovation.
- For Ecosystem Builders: First-hand insights into tech, sustainability, and entrepreneurial trends—plus unmatched networking.
South Summit Madrid is not just a conference—it’s a global catalyst for collaboration, investment, and startup growth.
Final Thoughts
South Summit 2025 is already shaping up to be a landmark year for global innovation. With Brazil’s edition behind us and Madrid ahead, these events are a testament to the power of ecosystem-driven collaboration across continents. From Porto Alegre to Madrid, South Summit continues to define what’s next for the world of startups.
For more information, visit southsummit.io and follow updates on LinkedIn.
More South Summit Coverage
- South Summit Expands Global Footprint: Brazil 2026 Announced
- South Summit Korea 2025 Winners: OmniShelf Takes Global Prize
- South Summit Madrid 2025: Netflix Co-Founder and 17 Unicorns
- From Corporate Law to Startup Connector: Q&A with South Summit CEO
Related articles: South Summit Madrid 2025: Netflix Co-Founder and 17 Unicorns Set to Transform Europe’s Startup Scene | From Corporate Law to Startup Connector: Q&A with South Summit CEO Nacho Mateo | South Summit Expands Global Footprint: Brazil 2026 Announced as Industry & Energy 2025 Takes Center Stage in Bizkaia
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