CaixaBank launches open innovation program to support startups in Spain and Portugal

CaixaBank has launched a new open innovation program to support startups in Spain and Portugal called the DayOne Open Innovation Program. With this initiative, the aim is to bring the entrepreneurial ecosystem closer to the entity's different business areas and jointly develop innovative projects that respond to the new needs of society and current challenges.

The project is aimed at the 993 companies in Spain and Portugal that have participated in the latest edition of the EmprendedorXXI Awards. Interested start-ups have until September 15 to register and propose the solution or project they propose to respond to any of the challenges posed by the entity.

The different challenges and lines of potential collaboration that companies must respond to are:

• Imact sector : companies that help the potential and improve the social impact of MicroBank or that can help provide a service or activity carried out with people at risk or social exclusion.
• Senior : startups that offer value-added products and services that help improve the quality of life of older people or companies that develop technological and innovative solutions for the senior segment.
• Mobility : companies that produce or market innovative electric vehicle solutions (motorcycles, scooters, bicycles etc.) for sustainable mobility in cities.
• Agro Food : companies that offer technological solutions aimed at facilitating digital transformation and implementing innovative solutions in the agri-food sector.

A jury, made up of representatives from different areas of the CaixaBank group, will decide the solution that best suits each challenge. The selected companies will work for a period of between three and six months with the teams of AgroBank (agricultural and agri-food sector), MicroBank (CaixaBank social bank), CaixaBank Payments & Consumer (means of payment and consumer financing) and CaixaBank Sénior (financial products and services for the elderly), some of the CaixaBank divisions that have supported the EmprendedorXXI Awards.

This initiative is part of CaixaBank's commitment to a scenario of collaboration with startups and fintech in the development of innovation. This collaboration allows improving agility and efficiency in innovation, accelerating the time from when an idea arises until the new product or service is commercialized and allows identifying talent.

In turn, for startups , collaborating with companies like CaixaBank allows them to scale quickly. This collaboration gives them the opportunity to have a multitude of very valuable resources, such as approaching an important portfolio of clients, having a large distribution channel, improving their brand positioning and gaining visibility. CaixaBank promotes co-creation initiatives with startups and fintechs to promote shared innovation, examples of which are zone2boost and start4big.

This new program joins the Investors Day initiative, which the entity has also launched for the first time this year to put the more than 30 winning startups of the last edition of the EmprendedorXXI Awards in contact with the main investors and companies interested in collaborating with the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Through DayOne, the specialized division for technology and innovation companies and their investors, CaixaBank promotes the EmprendedorXXI Awards to reward the most innovative companies with the greatest growth potential in Spain and Portugal, which this year have reached their 13th edition.

Throughout its history, nearly 7,000 newly created companies have participated in these calls and each year, more than 400 entrepreneurs, investors and representatives of entities linked to entrepreneurship have collaborated as members of various committees and juries. These figures endorse these awards as well established awards in the territory and allow us to obtain a relevant sample of Spanish and Portuguese startups in their first years of launch.

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