777 startups from 76 countries on five continents have registered in the Basque Government’s BIND 4.0 entrepreneurship program.
The open innovation platform BIND 4.0 has closed the call for the eighth edition of its acceleration program with 777 nominations, the highest number recorded in eight editions. Startups from 76 countries have been presented to the program to develop innovative projects in three areas: smart industry, clean and sustainable energy and food and health technology.
The startups that will participate in this eighth edition will be selected by the 70 partner companies of the acceleration program, among which are Mercedes-Benz, ITP Aero, CIE Automotive, Erhardt, Danobatgroup, Iberdrola, GH Cranes, BTI Biotechnology Institute or Eroski. As the main innovation of this edition, these companies have proposed 12 use cases so that startups, when they present their candidacy, can propose specific solutions to meet these needs.
Sustainability and artificial intelligence will be the protagonists of the eighth edition
50% of the registered startups have proposed innovation projects aimed at creating a more efficient and sustainable industry, proposing improvements in environmental impact and CO2 reduction. 43% of startups have presented proposals to respond to the use case of digitization and optimization of internal processes. And in the third position there are proposals that provide solutions related to the traceability, monitoring and integration of production processes.
In terms of the main transformative technologies in the sector, 25% of startups opt for artificial intelligence and 10% for IoT, followed by those using Big Data, immersive technology, robotics and additive manufacturing.
Startups will be able to present solutions for various sectors of activity, and it is noteworthy that 60% of the candidates of this edition propose solutions that can be applied in the field of smart industry and, in second place, 43% that can be applied in the field of clean energy and sustainability. On the other hand, 23% apply their solutions in the health sector and 21% in the food sector.
Startups from the world’s leading innovation hubs choose BIND 4.0
Regarding the origin of startups, the trend seen in recent years is that emerging companies in the world’s main innovation hubs choose BIND 4.0 to continue growing. This year the BIND 4.0 project will have solutions from Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Israel or the USA that are interested in developing in the Basque industry.
In this respect, the large number of international startups should also be highlighted, with more than 560 nominations registered, i.e. 84% of the total. 50% of that percentage, i.e. 390 nominations have been submitted from Europe, while 19% have been submitted from America and 13.5% from Asia. Furthermore, for the first time in 8 editions, the BIND 4.0 initiative has also had nominations from Oceania, as 5 Australian startups have been presented.
4.5% of all candidates are from the Basque Country, and 16 are from Gipuzkoa, 14 from Bizkaia and 5 from Álava. The remaining 11.7%, which is 91 candidacies, are from the rest of the State.
BIND 4.0, which has already reached eight editions, is one of the reference initiatives that promotes the digitalization of the industry through the collaboration between large companies and innovative startups. Through this successful model, so far, more than 200 startups have been accelerated and more than 300 projects have been developed, and a turnover of over 7.7 million euros has been exceeded. All this, thanks to the three initiatives that make up the program: BIND 4.0, an acceleration program aimed at large corporations; SME Connection, to innovate with SMEs; and, the third, BIND 4.0 GovTech, to promote the digitization of public companies.
- About BIND 4.0
BIND 4.0 is an open, public/private innovation platform for smart industry, and was created by the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment through the SPRI Group and its UpEuskadi platform in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Basque Country. It currently collaborates with around 70 reference companies in the sector based in the Basque Country, including Angulas Aguinaga, Iberdrola, ITP Aero, Mercedes Benz, Siemens Gamesa, Quirónsalud or Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. The initiative was created with three objectives: to accelerate the development of start-ups in the Basque industrial ecosystem, to promote the digital transformation of companies and to position the Basque ecosystem as an advanced hub for industrial entrepreneurship. BIND 4.0 has had different initiatives since 2016 and they have already promoted more than 200 startups and developed 300 projects.
More information:
www.bind40.com
