Next Frontier Founders returns, the program that connects technological vision with funding

Founding a company is much more than an innovative idea. Scientific and technological knowledge must be transformed into a clear value proposition, innovation must be properly protected, the business model must be refined, and the necessary funding must be accessed in order to grow the business project. Under the motto “From Technological Vision to Capital”, the Next Frontier Founders (NFF) program supports emerging technology-based companies that have arisen at UPC and prepares them to move towards the market, investment and scalability.

Promoted by UPC with the support of Fractus, within the framework of the Fractus-UPC Deep Tech Hub, NFF is aimed at undergraduate, master's and doctoral students, recent graduates, and teaching and research staff of the University who have founded (or are in the process of founding) an emerging technology-based company (start-up) or a spin-off.

Training and Practical Sessions that Culminate at 4YFN 2027

The program offers 15 sessions of 3 hours each, some of them with chief executive officers (CEOs) of companies as well as representatives of investment organizations. During these sessions, not only is preparation for investment and acceleration of the participating companies strengthened, but access is also facilitated to the deep-tech entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is characterized by being disruptive and, therefore, by having more demanding development cycles, specific regulatory frameworks, or requiring highly strategic financing.

In this context, one of the central pillars of the program is the protection of innovation through patents and intellectual property strategies, a key factor for deep-tech companies to be able to defend their technology, generate competitive advantage and strengthen their position before investors, industrial partners and international markets.

To accompany and help emerging companies advance in this context, the sessions offer:

• Practical training with a strong focus on patents and innovation protection, to help companies identify what they can protect, how to build a solid intellectual property strategy and how to convert their technological results into valuable assets for growth, investment and market access. The sessions also include the preparation of a robust financial plan, knowledge of the legal and regulatory framework, analysis of the deep-tech market and preparation of a pitch capable of conveying the company's value proposition.
  
  
• Specialized mentoring with experts in patents, intellectual property and technological protection strategy, as well as in financing, business strategy, legal framework and communication, to support each company in the critical aspects required to scale a deep-tech initiative.
• Networking with founders and one-to-one sessions or matchmaking with investors and key players in the sector.

As part of the sessions, participants will be able to present the final project at the UPC Pitching Session at 4YFN or have a presence at the UPC stand at this fair, a true international benchmark in the world of technological entrepreneurship, which will take place from March 1 to 4 within the framework of MWC Barcelona 2027.

39 projects, 11 patents and more than €36.5 million obtained

The three editions of the program consolidate a trajectory of impact within the deep-tech ecosystem. To date, 39 technology-based companies have participated, 11 of which have generated one or more patents in fields such as energy, medical devices, climate technologies, robotics, agri-food technologies and automotive. This volume of patentable projects demonstrates the program’s ability to attract initiatives with a high innovation component, technological protection potential and market prospects.

Among the outstanding companies are Theker Robotics, considered the company that grew the most during the last year (233%) in the report The Spanish Tech Ecosystem Report 2026, as well as other start-ups and spin-offs such as Neod and Helix AI, respectively, which have advanced in the validation of their technology, fundraising, generation of intellectual property and access to new markets.

Overall, the companies that have gone through this program have obtained €36.5 million in public and private funding and have contributed to the creation of more than 130 jobs. These figures reinforce the prestige of the program as an acceleration platform for deep-tech projects with the capacity to grow, protect their innovation and generate economic and industrial impact.

From left to right: a moment from a practical training session of the program, founders explaining their business project to a representative of an investment entity, and one of the presentations at the UPC Pitching Session of 4YFN 2026.