Barcelona, April 21st, 2023 - Following the success of the Fall 2022 session, a new batch of Spanish startups is ready to fly to Silicon Valley for the Desafia San Francisco Immersion Program, established by ICEX Spain Trade and Investment (the Government of Spain’s agency for the internationalization of businesses) and Red.es (the Government of Spain’s agency responsible for executing and deploying part of Spain’s Digital Agenda), run by the local partner Mind the Bridge (MTB).
The companies admitted to the Spring 2023 edition operate in markets ranging from Smart Hospitals to GovTech, SaaS for brands, metaverse, sustainable mobility, artists, home properties, marine robotics, transport services, and IoT solutions.
The startups’ founders will be joining the 2-week-long immersion program that will take place in San Francisco from May 1 to 12, hosted in the MTB Innovation Center in San Francisco, South of Market (SOMA): a comprehensive experience that includes workshops, learning and exploring Silicon Valley, generating networking opportunities and nurturing the entrepreneurial mindset unique to this region.
The program offers a privileged stance to Spanish startups from the most important ecosystems generated in Spain whose participation has been stimulated through both workshops organized in Madrid and Barcelona and accelerators and incubators based on locations all along the country.
All the projects boast a product or service of high technological value and sustainable business model.
“We're excited about the potential of each of these companies and their ability to disrupt industries that have historically been slow to drive value to their customers." - commented Bobby Amiri, Head of Startup Products and Services at Mind the Bridge.
The first 3 companies, in alphabetical order, are Aritium, eAgora, and EQIDATA.
#1 Aritium
Aritium transforms the way hospitals and healthcare organizations around the world operate by developing the Smart Hospital concept. Using its proprietary Platform, Aritium develops and deploys innovative solutions based on the IoT and AI, with the aim of optimizing and automating various processes in the healthcare sector.
#2 eAgora
eAgora is an all-in-one govtech platform (voting, ticket sales, communication, incidents, space reservation, etc.) It is a global platform that conforms to agenda 2030 (Real-time impact measurement on SDGs). eAgora connects with social media and municipal website integrations with gamification.
#3 EQIDATA
EQIDATA is the plug & play Saas that collects data from all stores and social networks of a brand, as well as those of its direct competitors, applies AI to show them in interactive real-time dashboards with multiple filters for analysis and to get predictions and recommendations, as well as measuring the return of their actions and promotions.
Moving forward in the list, we find Hotelverse, Meep, and Melboss.
#4 Hotelverse
Hotelverse redefines the hotel’s booking experience, allowing consumers to customize their stay through the hotel's Digital Hub. It creates a digital twin of a hotel, giving travelers the opportunity to fly over the hotel, explore its facilities, hyper-customize a specific room, and even book the room where each guest would like to stay. Thus, the hotel has a new value proposition that cannot be replicated by OTAs, changing the distribution status quo.
#5 Meep
Meep helps cities and transport operators create digital sustainable mobility ecosystems through a suite of products and services that includes a consumer-ready MaaS platform and a data platform. MeePath is a data platform that tracks, describes and predicts the behavior of a city’s inhabitants.
#6 Melboss
Melboss guides artists step by step to promote their career and connect with their audience. Melboss is the filter between the artist, the digital world and what can be achieved there by providing a career development hub for artists worldwide. With the Smart Music Manager™ tool, Melboss aims to revolutionize the way artists work on their music releases in the digital environment.
The final 4 startups of the list are Nutual, SEABOTS, Tennders, and Tennders.
#7 Nutual
Nutual is reinventing the way people own their homes, transforming properties into savings accounts.Through their technology, Nutual offers partial ownership solutions that provide customers with flexibility and liquidity with their homes.
#8 SEABOTS
SEABOTS specializes in the development of marine robotics and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). Its activity is focused on the analysis, conservation and restoration of the marine environment through the application of cutting-edge technologies. SEABOTS has successfully carried out more than 150 missions aimed at the study and preservation of the aquatic environment. The organization counts on an extensive network of partners in Europe, Asia and America and it is involved in several European R&D projects.
#9 Tennders
Tennders is a hybrid model which merges the SaaS model under subscription and the transactional model with on-demand transport services. Tennders offers on-demand road transport services as a B2B freight network. The software focuses on helping companies digitize their business to reduce inefficiencies to save costs and time.
#10 Thinger.io
Thinger.io is a toolkit that streamlines the creation of IoT solutions by means of No-code tools that simplifies the development, deployment and maintenance processes, making IoT solutions more profitable. Nowadays Thinger.io technology it's being used by almost 100.000 developers from all over the world, and trusted by more than 200 companies to be the main infrastructure of their IoT solutions.
C-Level officers and founders will participate in workshops, meetings and activities that not only inspire but help assess the current strategic position of the company, plot improvements to ramp-up growth, define a roadmap based on strategic and tactical considerations and start working on it.
During the first week, participating startups will have the opportunity to learn about the US business landscape and Silicon Valley Ecosystem, refine their storytelling, value proposition and pitching specific to a VC audience in the US, build strong networks with VC, corporate leaders and mentors and visit a corporation born out of startup culture. The second week will be focused on understanding how to compete globally and grow revenue, ensuring IP is protected, learning how to build a strong cross cultural multi-functional team, meeting other startup founders and grabbing insights from their journey.
A third session of the Program is scheduled in Fall 2023.