CaixaBank will expand DayOne throughout Spain and Portugal in 2019 to become the flagship bank of the innovation economy

• In its first year in operation, DayOne has physical centres in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, has a customer portfolio in Bilbao and it has just started its operational activities in Málaga.
• The specialised CaixaBank unit for innovative technology firms and their investors launches a new programme in Spain and Portugal to gather the key players of these industries in each country at events known as ‘DayOne Innovation Summits’.
• Brought for the first time by DayOne, the Premios EmprendedorXXI (EntrepreneurXXI Awards) will be delivered within the framework of these innovation events. The term for submitting applications is open until the 12 December.

After a year in operation, CaixaBank will expand DayOne, its specialised unit for innovative technology firms and their investors, throughout Spain and Portugal in 2019. The bank, with Chairman Jordi Gual and whose Chief Executive Officer is Gonzalo Gortázar, endeavours to become the flagship bank for entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-ups, and to accompany them along their growth and consolidation phase.

DayOne has physical facilities in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, and has a customer portfolio in Bilbao. It has also recently launched its operations in Málaga, with an initial portfolio of 100 customers. Throughout the coming year, DayOne aims to expand its presence and accompany entrepreneurs from across all the Spanish autonomous communities and from Portugal.

Juan Alcaraz, CaixaBank's managing Director, has explained that “DayOne strengthens the bank's strategy to offer a banking model specialised into segments, fully tailored to suit the needs of each customer profile. Through this unit we have developed a comprehensive programme to become the financial partner of the innovation economy”.

DayOne accompanies firms that are embarking on their first business years as well as companies that are undergoing rapid development thanks to technology. Furthermore, it has a line of services intended for investors interested in allocating funds to innovative firms in their early stages of development.

‘DayOne Innovation Summits’ to bring together the innovative ecosystem

In order to gather the key players of the entrepreneurial, technological and investment ecosystem in each country, DayOne has created a new programme in Spain and Portugal, where it will hold its ‘DayOne Innovation Summits’.

These events will be held throughout the first quarter of 2019 in each of the Spanish autonomous communities and two in Portugal, and they will offer workshops, masterclasses, lectures and round table discussions covering the new sector trends and the specific features of each area, and setting forth success cases.

The first DayOne Innovation Summit was held in Barcelona and gathered 300 people in the CaixaBank Auditorium. Some of the speakers included Erin Platts, Head of Relationship Banking, Europe at Silicon Valley Bank, and Ivan Bofarull, Chief Innovation Officer at Esade. Furthermore, Juan Alcaraz, CaixaBank's Managing Director, has taken stock of the first year of DayOne activity; and Jordi Nicolau, Executive Director of CaixaBank Global Customer Experience, has announced the Premios EmprendedorXXI.

Success cases were presented by Carlos Sotelo, founder and CEO of Scutum, a company that has developed and manufactured a new generation of electric scooters; and Laura Urquizu, CEO of Red Points, which offers a solution to protect brands on the Internet from unlawful exploitation and unauthorised use by third parties. Both entrepreneurs are previous winners of Premios EmprendedorXXI. This year, these awards have been integrated into DayOne and will be delivered as part of the ‘DayOne Innovation Summits’.

As set out in the presentation in Barcelona of the twelfth edition of these awards, the purpose of Premios EmprendedorXXI is to identify and gain an understanding of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, in order to work and collaborate with it.

Premios EmprendedorXXI

Technological and innovative companies with a high potential for growth in Spain and Portugal, and which have been in business for less than 3 years, can submit their initiatives from 30 October to 12 December and send their applications through the website www.emprendedorXXI.es.

In this edition, the best companies in the agrotech, travel-tech, commerce-tech, fintech and biotech sectors will be awarded, thus, bringing technology companies closer to the bank's various business areas. The award winners in each sector will receive 25,000 euros.

In addition, 19 awards will also be given to the companies with the highest impact in their area of origin: 17 in Spain (one for each autonomous region) and 2 in Portugal (northern-central region and Lisbon-south and islands). The winners from the different regions will receive 5,000 euros each.

All the winners will gain access to a supporting programme in Silicon Valley organised by Esade in collaboration with the Singularity University, or they will take part in an international course on business growth, called Ignite Fast Track, by the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom).

In total, the 2018 competition will hand out close to 525,000 euros in prizes, making Premios EmprendedorXXI one of the most generous events in Spain and Portugal for entrepreneurial businesses.

The Premios EmprendedorXXI, backed by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism through Enisa, are an established acknowledgement throughout the country, the most prominent event for Spanish and Portuguese start-ups and a key initiative in championing the best innovative business projects.

Since its inception in 2007, the initiative has invested 4.6 million euros in prizes and supporting actions, benefitting a total of 314 companies. Over its history, a total of 6,000 start-ups have taken part in Premios EmprendedorXXI and more than 276 business’ owners, investors and representatives from entrepreneurship support entities have sat on the various committees and juries.

About CaixaBank

CaixaBank is leader in retail banking in Spain, with a 29.3% share among individual customers. The bank, headed by Chairman Jordi Gual, and led by CEO, Gonzalo Gortázar, has around 16 million customers in Spain and Portugal, with 5,176 branches, the largest commercial network in the Iberian Peninsula.

CaixaBank has been named the best bank in Spain by some of the most prestigious international specialist publications. The bank was chosen the Best Bank in Spain 2018 by the US magazine Global Finance, while the British publication Euromoney selected CaixaBank as the Best Bank in Spain 2017. Euromoney also honoured CaixaBank as the best private banking operator in Spain in 2018 for the fourth consecutive time, and has chosen CaixaBank, for the first time, as Western Europe’s Best Digital Bank.

Considered one of the world's most sustainable banks, CaixaBank is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and is included on the CDP A List, which recognizes the leading companies in the fight against climate change.

About Enisa

The Empresa Nacional de Innovación is a public company and a subsidiary unit of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, through the Directorate General of Industry and Small and Medium Enterprises which, since 1982, actively takes part in funding viable and innovative projects, championed by SMEs and entrepreneurs. Since its creation, Enisa has granted more than 5,900 loans for an amount of more than 892 million euros.