In 2023, the Bankinter Innovation Foundation celebrated twenty years of anticipating the future, continuing to pursue its founding purpose of transforming society through innovation. These two decades of work have been made possible by the five programmes that still form the core of the Foundation's innovation ecosystem:
This brings together 24 renowned and internationally recognised innovative thinkers, leading entrepreneurs and representatives of the public and academia. In 2023, the board included:
To mark its twentieth birthday, an interactive digital publication was created showing how the Foundation has developed and anticipated the future during its two decades, in the words of its trustees and prominent members of its innovation ecosystem, such as the chairman of the Foundation, José María Fernández Sousa; the chairman of Bankinter, Pedro Guerrero; an expert from theFuture Trends Forum think tank, Esperanza Cuenca; and the CEO of the Cre100do company PROSOL, Rocío Hervella.
In addition to this online publication, a special video was produced summarising these twenty years of innovation and two in-person events were held on 15 June 2023. The first event, which was reserved for the Foundation community, was a great opportunity to foster knowledge of its programmes and promote contact between the participants in a relaxed atmosphere. The second event was for the general public and was streamed through the Foundation's YouTube channel. It consisted of two presentations and round tables on neurotechnologies and neuroscience, and the challenges facing global energy.
The Foundation's think tank focuses on analysing and anticipating global trends in innovation.Its experts try to anticipate and learn about tomorrow's challenges today. It holds two forums per year. The conclusions are set out in a detailed report that is published on the Foundation's website and channels, and shared in face-to-face and online events, which are available to everyone in both Spanish and English.
The Megatrends innovation trends report was prepared for the second year, covering neurotechnology, artificial intelligence, metadata and the cloud, mobility, targeted medicine, talent, education, sustainability, space economy, the metaverse and web 3.0. It was presented online by an expert from the Foundation, Miguel Arias.
The Foundation convened its think tank in June to explore future opportunities and challenges in neurotechnology, focussing in particular on physical and mental well-being. The forum discussed developments such as mind-controlled exoskeletons and mitigating the tremors caused by Parkinson's disease, with the objective of preventing and treating mental illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, regenerating organs through bioelectricity and enhancing human capabilities. Additionally, the ethical implications of these technologies and their relationship to transhumanism were explored in depth.
At the year's second forum, the experts shared strategies, innovations and technologies for transforming global agriculture and food, including: developing advanced fields for agriculture that grow plants and also capture carbon and promote biodiversity; revolutionary technologies that optimise efficiency and reduce waste, and production of alternative sources of protein, which has a crucial role to play, with advances such as lab-grown meat and plant-based food sources offering sustainable and ethical options that can reduce our carbon footprint, land use and water consumption.
Twelve online events were held in 2023. These addressed various topics and achieved 24,000 views, with an average NPS satisfaction score of 71. The topics discussed included:
Two private face-to-face events were also held with customers, in partnership with Bankinter, to share the knowledge from the Forum through its experts.
As part of its commitment to promoting innovation in the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem, the Foundation has been collaborating with Bankinter since 2013 on the Startups programme, through which the Bank invests in innovative technology startups. Since its creation, it has invested in 48 startups, which it has accompanied in their growth, offering them tools and knowledge that have helped them continue developing their businesses.
The free Startup Observatory tool continued to be one of the Foundation's great assets in 2023, collecting all public data on the Spanish startup ecosystem and making it available to everyone in a unified and orderly way. This is a reference tool for analysts of the ecosystem. In 2023, it collected 382 operations with total investment of 2,331.1 million euros, with a 10.3% reduction in operations.
As indicated by the Observatory reports produced by the Foundation's experts, the 32.2% decrease in investment was due to a 38.31% drop in foreign investment and the large volume of "mega rounds" (operations in excess of fifty million euros), as there was only a slight decrease in the volume of investment (7.4%) and operations (8.8%) compared to 2022 if these are excluded.
For the fourth consecutive year, the Foundation, together with Wayra (Telefónica) and Endevor, organised the Scaleup Spain network programme, which helps startups with high growth and potential to take the next step and become scaleups. To this end, it fosters a network with entrepreneurs who have already gone through the scale-up process, through workshops and private conferences.
In 2023, the programme launched its fourth round with an on-site bootcamp in October, two networking days and workshops on sales, governance, management with OKRs and internationalisation. Online sessions were also held on talent, hiring and culture.
The Scaleup Spain Network now includes fifty startups, after ten new companies joined the fourth round. These startups, together with those from previous rounds, have attracted total financing of 844 million euros and had an average of 65 employees at year-end 2023.
In 2023, five Coffee with Entrepreneurs events were held. These are webinars in which the Foundation team interviews leaders from the startup ecosystem to share their entrepreneurship experiences, opinions about the current state of the ecosystem and various areas of knowledge related to startups. The events attracted a total audience of 353 viewers and achieved an average NPS satisfaction score of 74.
Akademia has been working to promote innovative university talent for 15 years. Through virtual sessions spanning a four-month period, students from different disciplines at the best universities in Spain ask themselves "what do you need to know today to lead tomorrow?" The experts who collaborate in the Akademia programme debate with university students on trends in innovation that will be essential in their future careers.
The Akademia programme brings together experts in innovation, including members of the Future Trends Forum, directors of innovative companies, entrepreneurs, investors and university professors.
In the 2023 round, 143 students participated, rating the programme with an average NPS of 78 and highlighting the high quality and relevance of the content, which ranges from energy and telecommunications to big data, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. An innovative aspect of this round was the introduction of a new module on the future of water, highlighting the technological innovations that will occur in this sector in the coming years. The students also had the opportunity to apply their knowledge by developing an artificial intelligence algorithm to resolve real business problems. On-site sessions were also held at various universities, including Loyola and Deusto, where trends in innovation were explored in an open format.
In 2023, Akademia also launched 'Akademia Talent', a programme dedicated to its alumni community, which already exceeds 3,000 people. This development focuses on three pillars: the promotion of professional careers through interviews published on the Foundation's networks, a continuing education programme for small groups, and the integration of alumni as experts in the Akademia programme.
Medium-sized companies represent a core part of the Spanish economy, and fostering their growth in excellence and size is crucial for our country. The Cre100do programme was set up (in collaboration with ICEX and the Círculo de Empresarios) to promote this. The programme was transformed into the Cre100do Foundation in 2019, marking the beginning of a new phase.
The Cre100do Foundation is dedicated to promoting business excellence by bringing together the most outstanding and innovative middle market companies in Spain. Its mission is to stimulate growth, promote cooperation, revitalise the economy and generate a positive impact on society. To foster business excellence, Cre100do instils core values and knowledge, promotes best management practices, encourages the adoption of advanced technologies, and supports social and environmental responsibility.
Currently, the Cre100do Foundation is helping 135 innovative companies in their transformation into large companies, serving as an inspiration for the sector. It is supported by the Bankinter Innovation Foundation, which is one of its trustees and promotes its initiatives.
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