Yesterday we experienced one of those moments that truly capture what it means to build within the startup ecosystem.
The VTEX Retail Tech Award Demo Day, powered by Bcombinator, brought together some of the most promising startups in the retail-tech space at VTEX’s offices in Barcelona. All of them shared the same goal: to showcase their ability to transform the industry… and compete for the €15,000 prize and the opportunity to become strategic partners.
But beyond the prize, what stood out was ambition, execution, and a strong focus on solving real problems.
A Demo Day focused on real business impact
The format was simple: sharp, no-frills pitches where each startup had to answer one key question:
How are you truly impacting the retail industry?
From AI-powered ecommerce solutions to logistics optimization, marketing automation, and data intelligence, the overall level was remarkably strong. These were not ideas — they were products already in motion.
The participating startups included:
ComexSoft, CIRQUEL, SendingBay, Kanguro Delivery, Datafine AI, Shoptimus AI, STARTTI AI, Epinium, byNeural, Sense, AdMotion.ai, lovi.ai, ZeroPact, Semantico, Cobox Logistic, Logistics WMS, Tinkery y Routal.
Each with different approaches, but sharing a common thread: technology designed to improve efficiency, conversion, and customer experience in retail.
An active jury: beyond listening, validating
The Demo Day was more than just presentations.
The jury, composed of members from VTEX and Bcombinator, played an active role throughout the session — carefully listening to each pitch, asking key questions, and diving deeper into critical aspects of each solution.
This process is intentional.
The interaction, questions, and discussion help build a real scoring system, evaluating not only the strength of the product, but something even more important:
the fit between each startup and VTEX’s ecosystem and needs.
Because this is not just about innovation —
it’s about integration and the ability to deliver real value to clients.
The process continues: evaluation is still ongoing
The journey doesn’t end here.
Today (April 10th), the program continues with online sessions featuring additional startups such as:
Optifeed, UTRY, Nembol, Druo y Twintual.
These sessions complement the evaluation process and will help identify the startups that will move forward to the next stage.
What comes next?
The Demo Day marks a key milestone in the program’s roadmap — but not the finish line.
From here, the process becomes more strategic:
● Selection of 5–10 finalists
● Pilot programs with corporates
● Technical support and client pairing
● Build & validation phase (April–September)
● Final winner selection in September
This is where real value is created.
Where startups move beyond pitching… and start integrating into real market environments.
Beyond the prize: building real partnerships
The VTEX Retail Tech Award is not only about identifying talent.
It’s about something more meaningful:
building long-term relationships between startups and corporates.
Because in retail-tech, real growth doesn’t come from technology alone —
it comes from the ability to integrate, scale, and generate tangible impact.
And that only happens through collaboration.
A step forward in building the ecosystem
At Bcombinator, initiatives like this reinforce a key belief:
The future of retail won’t be built by a single player,
but through collaboration between startups, corporates, and investors.
The Demo Day was a clear reflection of that.
And the most interesting part…
is that this is just the beginning.
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