The companies Heura Foods, Idoven, Nantek, Bdeo_app, Saalg Geomechanics and Berdac have won the Entrepreneur XXI Awards, driven by CaixaBank through DayOne, its specialised division for companies working in technology and innovation and their investors, and co-awarded by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, via Enisa.
Despite the exceptional situation we are going through due to COVID-19, CaixaBank and Enisa continue to drive and support entrepreneurship, whilst recognising the important work entrepreneurs are carrying out. On this occasion, the award ceremony took place digitally, in a session featuring Reyes Marato, Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, and Ana Díez Fontana, executive director of business and entrepreneurs at CaixaBank. The ceremony also included the participation of José Bayón, CEO of Enisa; Xavier Oms, managing director of CaixaBank Equipment Finance, and Àngel Soto, business director of MicroBank, among other speakers. The awards were given out as part of DayOne Innovation Summit Live, which also held entrepreneurship and innovation sessions.
The award includes a financial reward of €15,000 for all the winners and access to an international support programme in one of the world's main innovation hubs, such as Silicon Valley or Cambridge, which both the winners and finalists from each sector will be able to access.
Recognising companies with the highest growth potential
Six sectors that are linked to the new trends in innovation and to CaixaBank's business areas have been defined in this edition: Agro Food, Health, Senior, Mobility, Prop Tech and Impact. To choose the winning company in each sector, the jury, formed of more than 80 representatives of the main venture capital funds, corporations and experts from the technological ecosystem, came together virtually to make the decision. The juries were chaired by AgroBank, Caixa Capital Risc, MicroBank, CaixaBank Payments & Consumer, CaixaBank Negocio Inmobilario and CaixaBank Sénior.
Of the 993 companies from Spain and Portugal that participation in this edition of the awards, the eighteen start-ups with the highest growth potential in these areas were:
- Heura Foods (Catalonia) received the award in the Agro Food The company creates meat products with 100% plant-based ingredients. Established in one Barcelona Activa's business incubators, the company aims to address the problems in the current food system by offering protein with a positive impact via sustainable and nutritious foods. Its products are currently available in over 2,000 retail outlets and are present in 6 countries. In this sector, the finalists were Indeo (Aragón) and Cedrion (Madrid).
- Idoven (Madrid)) was recognised in the Health A pioneering e-Health start-up, the company is redefining the way in which cardiac arrhythmias are diagnosed worldwide in order to detect heart diseases on time and thus prevent serious problems, such as heart attacks and sudden death, among others. It combines the analysis of data on the cloud with powerful AI algorithms and the use of state-of the-art medical wearable technology. In this sector, the finalists were Wivi (Basque Country) and Able Human Motio (Catalonia).
- Nantek (Basque Country) received the award in the Impact This company turns plastic into fuel with the use of nanoelements via a chemical reaction. In addition, it is able to release energy from plastic by recycling non-recycled mixed plastic waste into high quality compounds that can be used as a raw material by industries related to energy, power generation, petrochemicals and plastic. In the Impact category, the finalists were Aplanet (Basque Country) and Kimple Education (Madrid).
- Bdeo_app (Madrid) was awarded in the Mobility The activity of the company is to provide visual intelligence to the insurance sector, reducing costs and optimising times, as well as improving the end customer's experience. It offers video technology aimed at remotely obtaining documentary proof with the ability of processing it through a powerful visual intelligence engine. In the Mobility category, the finalists were FuelSave (Portugal) ans Trucksters (Madrid)..
- Saalg Geomechanics (Catalonia) is the company with the highest growth potential in the PropTech An engineering software company specialising in predicting and analysing the behaviour of land in major civil works and construction projects, the company develops DAARWIN, a web platform that uses genetic algorithms (machine learning) to manage geotechnical risk by comparing data from geotechnical tools and predictive models in real time while executing the works. The finalists in this category were Abora Solar (Aragón) and Cubelizer (Madrid).
- Berdac (Catalonia) was awarded in the Senior The company has created the first intelligent medicine assistant (IMA) that helps avoid mistakes and forgetfulness, improving the health of patients and the reassurance of their families. When it is time to take the medication, IMA alerts the patient and at the push of a button will always dispense the correct dose. In addition, thanks to its cloud monitoring platform, it tracks the adherence of thousands of patients, reducing the risk of relapses and hospitalisations. In this sector, the finalists were Adopta un Abuelo (Madrid) and Cocuus system (Navarra).
The awards feature the support of the CaixaBank divisions specialised in each one of these sectors: AgroBank (agricultural and agro-food sector), CaixaBank Sénior (financial products and services for senior citizens), CaixaBank Payments & Consumer (payment methods and consumer financing) and MicroBank (CaixaBank's social bank).
A 13-year history: more than 5 million in prizes and close to 7,000 participants
Since its inception in 2007, Enisa and CaixaBank have invested €5.2 million in prizes and support actions, benefitting a total of 360 companies.
Over its history, close to 7,000 start-ups have taken part in these selection processes and upwards of 400 business owners, investors and representatives from entrepreneurship support entities have taken part, sitting on the various committees and panels each year.
About CaixaBank
CaixaBank is the leading financial group in terms of retail banking in Spain and one of the most important in Portugal, where it controls 100% of BPI. The bank, chaired by Jordi Gual and with CEO Gonzalo Gortázar, has 15.5 million customers in the Iberian market; the largest commercial network on the peninsula, with more than 4,500 branches; and it continues to strengthen its leadership of the digital banking market, where it has 6.5 million digital customers.
This year, CaixaBank has been named Best Bank in Spain 2019, Best Bank for Corporate Responsibility in Western Europe 2019 and Best Bank Transformation in Western Europe 2019 by British publication Euromoney. These acknowledgements come in addition to those of Best Bank in Spain and Best Bank in Western Europe by the US magazine Global Finance, and Bank of the Year in Spain 2018 by The Banker magazine.
About Enisa
The Empresa Nacional de Innovación (National Innovation Company) is a public company and a subsidiary unit of the Directorate-General of Industry and SMEs (Secretary-General of Industry and SMEs of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism) which, since 1982, has actively taken part in funding viable and innovative projects, championed by SMEs and entrepreneurs.
The variety of companies that look to Enisa in search of funding for their business projects is very large, featuring presence in all sectors and in all Autonomous Communities.
Enisa's participatory loans do not require any further guarantees than the business project itself and a creditworthy management team, with amounts ranging from €25,000 to €1.5 million.
Enisa's historical portfolio exceeds 6,600 loans to more than 5,900 businesses, for a total amount of more than €1 billion.
