South Summit 2026: building connections for real innovation in health
From 3 to 5 June, Madrid once again became one of the major hubs of the global start-up ecosystem with the 15th edition of South Summit 2026, held at La Nave.
With around 18,000 people in attendance, more than 7,000 participating start-ups and over 2,100 investors from 141 countries came together to share knowledge, create opportunities and forge new partnerships to drive the development of innovative solutions.
Our participation in South Summit 2026
Once again this year, Cinfa actively took part in this major global hub for entrepreneurs, investors, start-ups and corporations.
At this year’s event, we organised the Cinfa breakfast Masterclass with a round-table discussion on ‘Innovation and investment in health: Pitch Session with CinfaNext and Clave Innohealth’, moderated by our Innovation Analyst Marta Pedrosa, alongside Sergio San Agustín from the Clave Innohealth investment fund.
The session brought together five high-potential start-ups from the healthtech ecosystem who had the opportunity to present their projects, share the challenges they face and explain how their solutions are helping to transform healthcare and improve people’s quality of life.
Participants included Ignacio de Ramón Burgos (Sincrolab), Cristina Vilarmau (Mimark), Rubén Molina (Innitius) and Leyre Ruete (Eversens).
We also took part in the round-table discussion ‘Open Innovation: Powering Ecosystem Growth Through Collaboration’ with Joseba Sagastigordia (Mondragon Ventures) and Juan Lizarribar (AstraZeneca), sharing our experiences on how open innovation, strategic alliances and collaboration between corporations, start-ups and other ecosystem players help to accelerate the creation of new solutions and generate a sustainable, long-term impact.
From the Startup Competition judging panel
As part of South Summit 2026, we were also members of the judging panel for the Startup Competition, one of the most significant initiatives at the event, which recognises entrepreneurial ventures with the greatest potential for growth and impact at international level.
Assessing projects gave us a first-hand insight into some of the most innovative solutions in the international HealthTech ecosystem, as well as enabling us to identify trends that are shaping the future of health. These include artificial intelligence applied to the healthcare sector, advanced diagnostic technologies, precision medicine, digital health and the development of new therapeutic platforms.
The winning start-up in the Health category was Altum Sequencing, a Madrid-based company specialising in monitoring cancer using liquid biopsy and advanced sequencing. Their solution makes it possible to detect minimal residual disease and potential cancer relapses from a simple blood sample, offering an earlier, more accurate and less invasive alternative to many conventional clinical monitoring methods.
Real innovation in health: the value of collaboration
We’re speaking about innovation, but also about the importance of collaborating with healthtech start-ups to drive real innovation in health. At Cinfa, we are committed to supporting start-ups as they grow by providing access to knowledge, expertise and strategic connections that help accelerate their growth and maximise their impact.
We are therefore convinced that discussions and collaborations such as those that arose at South Summit 2026 can help drive the next generation of innovation in health.
