Marsal Gifra is a renowned entrepreneur, space visionary, and futurist with over two decades of leadership in pioneering ventures across the Internet, mobile technology, and the emerging space economy. He is recognized for turning bold visions into transformative realities.
As a visionary founder, Gifra has built and led several high-impact ventures, including Terra (1998), once one of the world’s largest internet portals ; Latinia (2000), a leading SMS platform provider; and Galactic Suite (2007), a first-mover in space tourism . As a space advocate, Gifra founded the Homo Spaciens Initiative in 2011 to promote the long-term vision of an off-Earth civilization. He later joined the 100 Year Starship, a DARPA and NASA joint project focused on interstellar travel . In 2015, he advised ESA on future lunar strategy and proposed the Global Space Fund, aimed at developing a sustainable cislunar economy. As a futurist, Gifra leads the Megatrends Watch Institute, a global foresight think tank, where he explores long-term megatrends and disruptions .
Launching the IPO of Terra, Europe's largest listed Internet company (1999)
Unveiling the full-scale module mockup of the Galactic Suite Space Resort (2009)
Staging the 100 Year Starship Project with Buzz Aldrin at EU Parliament (2015)
Introducing the Megatrend Approach to impact investing at Forbes (2018)
His insights have been featured in global media and academic journals, and he is a frequent speaker at summits and universities.
MACBA Museum organised in 2019 a series of conferences to scrutinize the uncertain futures we face today. In this context, Gifra gave a keynote talk discussing the current state of the world and its possible futures.
For the first time in mankind history, we are consciously aware that Earth has been our cradle. In this TED talk from 2015, Gifra envisions the time in which humans leave this cradle to become a multiplanetary species.
The European Union held a summit in 2013 to collect information to plan for the coming decades of science and technology priorities, and invited the 100YSS Team to discuss the future plans for space.
NASA and DARPA jointly organised the 100 Year Starship Symposium in 2011 to seed a public-private effort to make interstellar travel reality. In this symposium, Gifra presented a strategic feasibility roadmap.