The startup Broomx – The Projected VR Company, a Barcelona Tech City partner, has won first prize in the Sónar+D Startup Competition. The virtual reality company competed with 27 companies in the competition that were selected from around the world and from different fields.

Experts in the creation of immersive experiences in real spaces, Broomx Technologies presented its BroomxVR at Sónar+D. It is the first virtual reality platform for VR projectors that offers the best experiences for the MK Player360, a VR projection device created by the same company.

“We were really attracted by the Sonar+D programme, but we had doubts about whether it was worth participating since we are not purely a music tech. Barcelona Tech City encouraged us to take part and we’ve had very good feedback”, explains Ignasi Capellà, CMO & Business Development and co-founder of Broomx – The Projected VR Company. Participating in this event the company has developed contacts with national and international investors and VR content creators from around the world, as well as receiving a great deal of media attention. “We have had many meetings, participated in the ‘pitch competition’, we spoke to the press, and we met the other startups”.

As first place winner of the Startup Competition, Broomx will get access to the Sendgrid Accelerate programme and a space for three months in the Barcelona Activa accelerator in Mediatic.  On top of this, Capellà particularly appreciates “the media and social network attention and the ‘seal of quality’ in the eyes of clients and investors”.

Acqustic, an online platform, which allows users to hire musicians to come and play in their living room, garden and other stages, was another of Barcelona Tech City’s partner startups that participated. The platform currently has over 500 musicians and is active in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. Acqustic also organises secret concerts in places such as bookshops, florists and rooftops, and works to create musical experiences for brands. Airbnb, Cutty Sark, Movistar and Amazon are among their clients. During Sónar+D, Acqustic promoted its new services for musicians who as well as being able to get hired to play in houses and gardens, will also be able to distribute their music in one click on Spotify, iTunes and Amazon. At the same time, they will also be able to post their concerts on the platform, as such creating the biggest calendar of live emerging music.

From his participation in Sónar+D, Esteve Lombarte, founder of Acqustic, highlights the quality of the investors they met during the invent, as well as the meetings they held. “Even though it’s an event that isn’t very focussed on startups”. However, he stresses the need for Startup Garden to be given more content and resources. “The Startup Competition is very interesting but only the panel and the startups attend, and it would be better if the attendance of the public and of investors were incentivised”, Lombarte explains.

A lot of interaction

Barcelona Tech City has contributed to Sónar+D from the start, and this year they have become Strategic Partners. An agreement which resulted in the participation of experts from the Association in different activities at Startup Garden, such as the Mentoring sessions for startups and Meet the Investor. Two of its companies – Acqustic and Broomx – were also present in Startup Garden, the Sónar+D area dedicated to the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the event.

This sixth edition of Sónar+D has achieved a total of almost 6,000 professionals registered from 61 countries, exceeding last years figure by 10%. The 27 scheduled conferences had over 4,000 attendees. The 21 workshops, which were at 100% capacity, got 525 people together and the interactions managed by the conference’s app totalled more than 160,000. In total, more than 230 activities and projects took place with over 500 speakers and exhibitors. Next year’s Sónar+D will take place on 18, 19 and 20 July 2019, just in case you want to keep your diary free.