Nataly, the company that has developed a postpartum sanitary pad that quantifies bleeding in real time without electronic components, has been the winner of the X Círculo Ecuestre Joven Relevante Award. The accolade was presented to its CEO, Olivia Génova, this Thursday during the gala dinner of the tenth edition of this social and business initiative promoted by the club, which aims to project the talent of young entrepreneurs.
The event brought together nearly 150 members and featured the prominent presence of the president of Círculo Ecuestre, Enrique Lacalle, who praised “the significant role of the award as a platform to recognize and boost young talent.”
The Círculo Ecuestre Joven Relevante Award is an initiative that emerged from the work of the entity's youngest members through the Youth Committee. It seeks to recognize and distinguish an individual or a team under 40 who has developed or is developing a project with a social impact. It is a benchmark award for social and business interest in the city of Barcelona, counting on the support of CaixaBank, Savills, PwC, Interpath, IESE Business School, and UIC Barcelona.
In this edition, Nataly was selected for its social purpose and its potential to transform maternal safety during the postpartum period. The company has developed a new monitoring system that aims to prevent deaths from postpartum hemorrhage, considered the leading cause of maternal mortality globally and a complication that is underdiagnosed in many cases. Its solution allows for the early, objective, and accessible detection of excessive bleeding, facilitating a faster response from healthcare professionals.
The product created by Nataly stands out for its simplicity and its ability to operate without electronic components, which facilitates its use in various healthcare environments, including those with limited resources. The postpartum pad developed by the company allows for real-time quantification of bleeding, thereby contributing to improving birth safety, reducing invasive interventions, and saving lives. Its proposal combines innovation, social impact, and accessibility, three of the core values recognized by the Círculo Ecuestre Joven Relevante Award.
As a prize, the winner and the finalists received various gifts from the institution and the main sponsors of the event. Specifically, Génova received a full year of membership access to Círculo Ecuestre, a free course from IESE's Enfocados program —with a 50% discount for the second and third finalists— and access to a subject in the Master in Entrepreneurship at UIC Barcelona, also with a 50% discount for the other two finalists. Furthermore, the winner herself was chosen by PwC and Interpath to receive specialized consultancy.
The other two finalist projects were Balance Phone and Twintual. Balance Phone is the startup co-founded by Carlos Fontclara that has created a smartphone with its own operating system from scratch to minimize digital distractions. The project was born in response to the growing phone addiction and digital hyperstimulation that particularly affects children and young people. Its proposal combines hardware and software focused on digital well-being, aiming to regain attention, quality time, and more present relationships in families, schools, and work environments.
For its part, Twintual, represented by its CEO and co-founder, Cristina Grau, is an artificial intelligence-based platform that unifies communication channels such as email, Slack, or WhatsApp into a single interface. The tool allows for prioritizing messages, summarizing conversations, and automatically generating responses, with the aim of reducing the digital overload affecting professionals and teams. The application was born precisely to reduce the volume of working hours consumed by answering messages and to facilitate more efficient, human, and sustainable working environments.
This year, the award jury was composed of a total of 20 personalities from the business sector and Catalan civil society: Enrique Lacalle, jury president and president of Círculo Ecuestre; Antonio Gámiz, president of the Senate of Círculo Ecuestre; Emilio Zegrí, president of the Youth Committee of Círculo Ecuestre; Ramon Soler, regional director of CaixaBank in Barcelona; Pablo Balea, Head of Residential Barcelona at Savills España; Ignacio Marull, partner in charge of PwC in Catalonia and Andorra; Jordi Castiñera, managing director of Interpath Spain; Mar Martínez, associate director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IESE Business School; Juan José Marín, associate professor at UIC Barcelona; Ramon Agenjo, president of Barcelona Global; Luis Badrinas, vice president of Barcelona Health Hub; Guifré Belloso, Entrepreneurship Advisor at Barcelona Activa; Miquel Costa, president of Foro Capital Pymes; Mariona Esquerdo, head of the VHIR Innovation Unit at Vall d’Hebron; Rocío Flor López, financial advisory team leader at ACCIÓ; José A. González, Audit partner at Deloitte and promoter of StartmeUp; María Mora, director of Innovation at Foment del Treball; Pau Rodríguez, winner of the last edition of the Círculo Ecuestre Joven Relevante Award for the Methinks AI project; Álex Sàlmon, director of the Abril supplement of Prensa Ibérica and member of the Editorial Committee of El Periódico; and Roque Velasco, Managing Partner of Galdana Ventures.
The winning initiative was chosen at the gala dinner held last night at the Círculo Ecuestre facilities and presented, for the seventh consecutive year, by actress and presenter Cristina Brondo.
Once again, the competition saw the participation of around 30 projects that bring a benefit to society in the areas of culture, business, social work, environmental respect, or R&D enhancement. Of these, six were chosen by the Organizing Committee and the Nominations Committee to move on to the next phase. Following this initial selection, the jury chose the three finalists who presented their work at the final dinner held this Thursday, May 14.