How the VDS 2026 jury prepared for the final.
Kuanta evaluated every finalist of the VDS Startup Competition, and the jury used those reports to prepare for the final pitches.
Kuanta Partnerships Team3 min read
- Organizer
- Valencia Digital Summit (VDS)
- Program
- VDS Startup Competition, ninth edition
- Kuanta's role
- An evaluation report on every finalist
Every year, Valencia Digital Summit runs a Startup Competition alongside its event, and this year drew its largest field yet. Together with VDS and Plug and Play, the judges narrowed it down to the finalists, from biotech to cybersecurity, who pitched on the Main Stage in Valencia on 21 and 22 October.
Every judge had a report on each company in front of them. Each report scored the startup on eight categories, weighted for its industry and stage, so the jury could compare very different companies on the same basis. It ended with the risks we found and the questions an investor is likely to ask.
Every claim in the deck, checked against the record.
In each report, the claims from the deck were checked against company registries, filed accounts and public sources. Anything that couldn't be confirmed was flagged, so the jury knew which claims to ask the founders about.
Illustrative example with a fictional company.
- Entity registrationSwiss commercial register, active since April 2021Confirmed
- Three operational routesAll three appear in current European timetablesConfirmed
- 110,000 passengers in 2025Consistent with load factors; corroborated by pressConfirmed
- EBITDA losses of €4.1M to €4.7MStated in the deck, no audited accountsCaution
- €32M revenue forecast for 2026A forecast, inconsistent with early passenger countsCaution
“I went through the reports before the pitches. For a couple of startups, it pointed out things I’d normally only find in due diligence, like figures in the deck that didn’t match what was registered.”
Desirée AlayzaGlobal BD Director, Bcombinator · VDS 2026 juryAfter the event, each finalist got their own report, so they can see how their company reads to an investor and what they're likely to be asked when they raise their next round.
“We get more applications every year, and the jury only has so much time with each startup. The reports meant they came in knowing where to look. And it was nice to give the finalists something to take home.”
Diego FerragudProgram Director, VDSEarlier this year, Rotterdam School of Management studied a similar setup. Experienced analysts and Kuanta scored the same 150 startups from the Philips Innovation Awards, and Kuanta found more of the startups that went on to raise funding than the analysts did. Read more about the study.
