The Hall 8.1 was the scenery that saw nine of our NGI Sargasso Innovators shine at 4YFN 2025, the startup side event of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, celebrated in the Spanish city of Barcelona from the 3rd to the 6th of March.

During the four days of the hectic international event, nine teams selected in the NGI Sargasso open calls had the opportunity to present their projects creating the Next Generation Internet in a Pitching Session, and to network in their own booths located in the Hall 8.1 of 4YFN, from 8.1 B63.4 to 8.1 B63.8.

We also counted with the special visit of Stergios Tsiafoulis, our Project Officer from the European Commission, who spoke with our beneficiaries about the progress of their projects, and one of the coaches individually mentoring and supporting them during the OnCampus Program months, Juan Juan. It was a unique week for NGI Sargasso, in which some of our innovators could meet in person for the first time with the NGI Sargasso consortium partners supporting them to build an Internet of Humans: European Science Foundation, Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Sploro and AUSTRALO.

Next-Generation Internet: Bridging Continents, Innovating Together

“Next-Generation Internet: Bridging Continents, Innovating Together”. This was the title of the NGI Sargasso panel we hosted in the morning of Tuesday, the 4th of March, in the Hall 8.1 B55 of 4YFN 2025. ‘What does NGI mean?’, ‘How is NGI Sargasso supporting innovation in Next Generation Internet?’

Four of our NGI Sargasso Innovators took the stage to discuss these and some other questions, moderated by our coordinator Emmanuel Detsis, from ESF – European Science Foundation.

Yuting Jiang, CEO of Agora Citizen Network, spoke about how she is developing a citizen network purposefully designed for civic dialogues, since today social networks are “very powerful tools to manipulate public opinion”, in which users can prove anonymously that they are humans, and not bots, she explained. Alex Bourlier, Co-Founder of Startin’blox, is creating data spaces making access to data easier. He highlighted the possibility given by NGI Sargasso to access top business opportunities in the USA market. Christos Stefanatos, Project Leader at EV Loader, remarked that the NGI Sargasso Brokerage Platform to find a partner across the Atlantic was a “matchmaking heaven”. He is developing a software to optimize and streamline payments in electric vehicles charging stations, protecting users’ data. Erik Hieta-aho, Senior Scientist at VTT, reflected about why quantum algorithms are the future that will impact every company. With HPQCSSI, or Hybrid PQC Self-Sovereign Identity Stack, he is making digital credentials more secure.

Our Project Officer Stergios Tsiafoulis was in charge of opening this session to speak about NGI – The Next Generation Internet initiative, creating an Internet of Humans for Europe by funding over 1.500 ideas. He also emphasized that NGI Sargasso was the first project fostering collaboration between Europe and USA and Canada. In fact, we have funded 50 innovators through five open calls, distributing a total €4.8M.

Monique Calisti, CEO of Martel Innovate and NGI Outreach Office Director, encouraged the audience to keep building an Internet of Trust, and to apply for the NGI open calls.

Together, we will keep building bridges for the future of the Internet!

NGI Sargasso Showcase: Pioneering Innovations for Europe’s Digital Future

Right after the panel, five more NGI Sargasso Innovators joined Yuting, Alex, Christos and Erik in the pitching session “NGI Sargasso Showcase: Pioneering Innovation for Europe’s Digital Future”, in which each of them had three minutes to present their project funded by NGI Sargasso to the audience:

  • Ángel Hernando-Veciana, Full Professor at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, presented “GMM: A Global Market Maker for Decentralized Token Exchanges”. He was joined by Marcelo Bagnulo Braun.
  • Yuting Jiang, CEO at Agora Citizen Network, presented her alternative social media network.
  • Julien Bringer, CEO at Simeon, presented his platform.
  • Giovanni Pettorru, PhD Student at Università degli Studi di Cagliari, presented “POSIDONIA: POSition Information with Digital twin Offloading in trustworthy Next-generation Internet Applications”. He was accompanied by Francesca Marcello, Virginia Pilloni, and Marco Martalo.
  • Erik Hieta-aho, Senior Scientist at VTT, presented “HPQCSSI: Hybrid Post-Quantum Cryptography Self-Sovereign Identity Stack”. Valtteri Lipiäinen was with him during the event days.
  • Alex Bourlier, Co-Founder at Startin’blox, presented “RSFA: Rosetta Stone for API”.
  • Jordi Mongay Batalla, Professor at Warsaw University of Technology, presented “EvORAN: Evaluation of Open RAN network equipment including underlying”.
  • Christos Stefanatos, Project Lead at EV Loader, presented “EVI US Pilot: Electric Vehicle Identity US Pilot”. His colleagues Nikolaos Karadimos and Alexios Karadimos were with him at 4YFN 2025.
  • Fernando Gómez Gil, Co-Founder at Training Experience, presented “VeriRecruit: AI-Driven Interview Analysis for Precision Hiring”. Nicolas Ladino Calvo joined Fernando at their 4YFN booth.

Check our portfolio to discover more ground-breaking ideas creating the Next Generation Internet with a human-centric approach for our generations to come.

✨THANK YOU✨ to everyone who joined NGI Sargasso’s mission of empowering NGI innovation across continents during the 4YFN 2025 week in Barcelona! 

In case you missed our sessions, you can watch them below: