Valencia, October 21, 2026. The Port Entrepreneurship International Congress 2026 (PEIC'26) has launched its new edition, demonstrating international interest in port entrepreneurship. The President of the Port Authority of Valencia (APV), Mar Chao, highlighted the importance of innovation as "an essential requirement to continue growing, remaining competitive, sustainable, and resilient."
Mar Chao was in charge of inaugurating the day, along with the General Director of the Valenciaport Foundation (FV), Antonio Torregrosa, with interventions that highlighted the value of a meeting that brings together representatives of ports, startups, logistics corporations, and investors from around the world and has become an international meeting point for port innovation and entrepreneurship.
In this context, the president emphasized initiatives promoted by the APV that particularly symbolize this commitment to applied innovation, such as the Valenciaport Sandbox. "The Sandbox was created with a simple objective: to allow innovative solutions to be tested in a real port environment," she explained, while expressing her desire that with projects like this, "the path from innovation to implementation will be faster, more efficient, and more valuable for all involved."
For his part, Antonio Torregrosa highlighted the great interest from ports, large companies, investors, and innovation leaders in participating in this event. In his opinion, this shows that there is a growing international community that considers open innovation "a key driver for the future of the maritime and logistics sectors."
More than 45 startups from 12 different countries
The talk, titled "Opening Perspectives: Enabling port innovation and entrepreneurship," served to inaugurate this fourth edition, which brings together startups from 12 countries that come to Valencia to showcase their technology to the port community.
Thus, over two days, a total of 20 startups are scheduled to take the stage, plus the 5 selected to participate in the VDS pitch competition, those that will exhibit in the new demonstration area on the lake of the City of Arts and Sciences, and the 13 that will participate in the PEIC Resilience Forum. In total, more than 45 selected startups are in Valencia to share their innovations.
The congress, which celebrates its fourth edition in the City of Arts and Sciences, incorporates important new features, such as "PEIC Demo on the Lake" and the new, larger Agora Stage. All this, without losing the spirit that has marked previous editions: connecting startups, international port companies and institutions, and specialized venture capital.
PEIC has already become an essential event on the port innovation calendar. During these days, Valenciaport is the meeting point for national and international ports that share challenges and come to Valencia to learn about solutions and to directly contact the innovative companies that are developing them.
"That's why meetings like this are so important. Because this is where those who understand the operational challenges of the sector meet those who work to solve them. This is where collaborations are born and, in many cases, become innovations with a tangible impact," concluded the president of Valenciaport.
