Forty technology-based projects compete in the 'Startup Andalucía Roadshow' program.

 

This program, promoted by the Ministry of University, Research and Innovation and the Andalusian Council of Chambers of Commerce of Andalusia, will offer the selected proposals specialized advice to turn them into Solid initiatives with the capacity to attract investment and compete in international markets.

 

The call, which closed on June 16, included various promotional and preparation activities led by startup founders, investors, and experts. The main objective of 'Startup Andalusia Roadshow' is to provide specialized support and advice to the selected projects, so that they can grow, attract capital and compete successfully in global scenarios.

 

Besides giving visibility to innovative business projects, this initiative contributes to promoting the culture of Capabilities among Andalusian startups and strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The competition not only rewards talent, but also helps companies implement new business models that allow them to acquire competitive advantages.

 

Requirements and evaluation of applications

 

Candidate companies are emerging firms or small, unlisted companies with headquarters or production facilities in Andalusia. They must be incorporated as a commercial company and have been in existence for less than five years (or up to seven years for the biotechnology and healthcare sectors). Furthermore, they cannot have distributed profits or emerged from a merger.

 

Is innovative technology-based companies whose business development plan seeks to exploit products or services that require intensive use of technologies or technical and/or scientific knowledge. Candidates must propose the development of new products, services, or processes for market introduction and have a scalable and well-defined business model, as well as with recurring income.

 

Startup teams must be multidisciplinary, with technical expertise and the capacity to cover all key business areas. The sponsoring team must be comprised of at least two people dedicated exclusively to the project and have invested their own capital in the initiative's implementation.

 

Applications will be evaluated according to a series of criteria. Innovation, competitive advantage and business value proposition will represent 30% of the score. The technical, commercial and economic-financial viability will also have a weight of 30%. Finally, the capabilities, attitudes and experience of the promoters will account for 40% of the evaluation.

 

Mentoring and contact with investors

 

After this evaluation phase, a pitch to select the twelve finalist projects with the highest scores. These will have the opportunity to participate in a intensive program designed to improve their business models and organizational structures, which will be developed online and will include specialized activities in business scaling.

 

All finalists will have a first contact with local investors and financial instrumentsIn the final event, they will compete to be recognized as one of the five best startups of this fourth call.

 

These five winning startups will have access to a intensive high-impact business training and the possibility of participating in international and national events related to entrepreneurship, such as the WebSummit (Lisbon), the VDS+ (Valencia), the Al-Andalus Innovation Venture (Seville) or the Alhambra Venture (Granada).