1. What does winning the PEIC public choice award at the 4th edition of PEIC mean to you?
Winning the Public Choice Award is particularly meaningful because it comes from the people attending the event. For Mediterranean Algae (Medalgae), it signals that water quality is becoming a strategic issue for the port sector, not just an environmental topic. We are proud that our approach, combining environmental intelligence with the ability to take action, resonated with the PEIC community.
But awards are a starting point, not the destination. Our real ambition is to see solutions like ours become part of the day-to-day infrastructure of ports around the world.
2. How would you describe PEIC to someone who has never attended?
PEIC is where the people developing new maritime technologies meet the people who can put them to work. It brings together startups, port authorities, industry leaders and investors, with a clear focus on real challenges facing ports.
What makes it different from many innovation events is its practical approach: you can move from a conversation about a problem to a live demonstration and a discussion about implementation in the same day.
3. Beyond the award, what did you take away from these days in Valencia?
Above all, we came away with valuable conversations with port authorities and innovation leaders from several countries. It reinforced something we see in our own projects: although ports operate in very different environments, many face the same challenge of turning environmental commitments into measurable, operational results.
We also left with a clear priority: converting promising conversations into deployments. The sector does not lack ideas or pilot projects; what it needs is more innovation that becomes part of everyday port operations.
4. What would you say to other startups considering applying for the next edition?
Apply, but arrive with more than a compelling pitch. Be ready to explain the operational problem you solve, the evidence that your technology works, what it costs to deploy and who inside a port would actually buy it. That is the difference between attracting interest and opening a commercial opportunity.
The real value of PEIC is the access to people, practical feedback and partnerships that can help you move faster.
5. Every startup is born from a conviction. What problem drove you to create your solution?
Our starting conviction was simple: ports cannot manage water quality properly without knowing what is happening in the water, and data alone are not enough unless they lead to action. Excess nutrients and deteriorating water conditions can threaten marine ecosystems, port operations and coastal communities. Yet monitoring is often periodic, while water conditions can change rapidly.
At Mediterranean Algae, we connect monitoring, intelligence and remediation in one ecosystem. Across BIOREMED ALGAE deployments, including at the ports of Alicante and Gandía, we have already treated more than 50 million liters of water. Our ambition is to help ports move from simply monitoring water quality to actively managing and improving it.
6. What’s next for you? Where would you like to be a year from now?
Over the next year, we want to build on that operational track record and turn proven technology into long-term infrastructure. Our priority is to expand recurring deployments across ports and marinas, consolidate our Mediterranean presence and accelerate international expansion.
Our next technological milestone is predictive intelligence. As our environmental dataset grows, we aim to develop and validate models that can anticipate how climate-related events, such as heavy rainfall and marine heatwaves, may affect water quality in a given port. The objective is to help operators prepare for risks before they become environmental problems, rather than simply react after the fact.
7. What advice would you give someone who wants to start a business in the port-logistics sector today?
Understand how your customer buys, not just what your customer needs. A port is a complex ecosystem of authorities, operators, concessionaires and service providers, each with different responsibilities, budgets and decision-making processes. The team that supports a pilot is not necessarily the team that can approve a long-term contract.
I wish someone had told me earlier that a successful pilot is not yet a business model. Validate the technology, certainly, but validate the procurement route, the budget and the commercial decision-maker just as early. That is often the difference between an interesting innovation and a scalable company.
8. If you had to sum up the future of port-maritime innovation in one word, or a short phrase, what would it be?
From pilots to essential infrastructure.
The next generation of maritime innovation will not be defined by how many technologies ports test, but by how many they adopt and scale. The real shift is from isolated pilots and reactive monitoring to connected systems that can detect risks, warn operators early and support measurable action.