As part of the EIC Innovation Procurement pilot with CaixaBank, 10 EIC-funded successful companies visited the core of the Spanish bank in Barcelona, on 11-12 July. They learnt about their business and commercial strategy and pitched their innovations to the highest decision-makers of the La Caixa group to help develop European rural areas.
CaixaBank, a leading financial group in retail banking with more than 20 million customers and 5000 bank branches, teamed up with the EIC to once again support SMEs and provide them with the chance to make a positive contribution (more on the previous event here). While the first event had a clear focus on FinTech, this initiative has a quite different objective: to bring the business ecosystem closer to different rural areas and jointly develop innovative projects and ideas that respond positively to the needs of agriculture and its daily challenges.
The journey commenced during the EIC Summit 2021, on 24-25 November 2021, when the call for applications opened. 111 EIC beneficiaries responded to the challenges posed by CaixaBank, leading to a first selection of 27 SMEs, who had the opportunity to pitch and meet with CaixaBank representatives in April 2022 digitally. These first events served as an introduction, where CaixaBank explained to the selected companies what they are looking for and what kind of collaborations are expected to take place.
Of those 27 companies, 10 were selected to continue the process:
These 10 EIC innovators got the opportunity to conduct a first ‘market-test’ and get in touch with actual potential consumers by exhibiting and pitching at the Bilbao Food4Future Summit on 17-19 May 2022.
These same 10 companies then participated in the two-day event in Barcelona, the terminus of this part of the initiative. During the event in Barcelona, the EIC innovators firstly had the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at CaixaBanks’ innovation hubs and offices. On the second day, they presented their products and innovations to CaixaBank’s C-level in the hopes of getting them commercialised to clients in rural areas.
Jean David Malo, Director of the Executive Agency for EIC and SMEs (EISMEA):
“Corporate partners like CaixaBank and the 10 EIC beneficiaries participating in the last phase of this AgroTech initiative are the proof that Europe has the talent, inspiration and capacity to grow innovative companies with high-impact solutions that make a positive difference in millions of people’s lives every day”.
CaixaBank:
“The alliance with the EIC lets us collaborate with innovative companies in the agro-food sector, which help us to develop new solutions that improve the services we offer to our customers. At AgroBank, we want to address the sector's current needs and challenges.
The initiative is part of CaixaBank's commitment to partnering with start-ups, fintech and AgroTech in order to foster innovation."
Jose Luis Asensio, Product Manager of EIC-funded Terabee:
“We initially applied to this event because we thought it would boost our company. After the application back in November 2021, we got support from the EIC to work on our pitching, which proved very useful down the road. After pitching during the online session back in April 2022, we were selected to go to the Food4Future summit in Bilbao and pitch in front of potential customers. And all this led to the event in Barcelona, where we will present our innovations to the C-level of CaixaBank and hopefully conduct business together."
Next steps
This initiative between CaixaBank and the EIC will continue in the next weeks with a detailed study of the commercial strategy and the feasibility of the pilots proposed in Barcelona. Best practices will be shared and the EIC will create a case study with them with the purpose to be replicated with other corporations and fields of activity through the EIC Business Acceleration Services.
Interested in the EIC Innovation Procurement Partnership Programme?
Since 2020, the EIC Business Acceleration Services has developed its EIC Innovation Procurement Partnership Programme. It allows EIC-funded companies to boost their network and meet relevant innovation procurement makers from the most ambitious public or private companies or institutions in Europe. From March 2020 until June 2022, 7 initiatives have been organised through “EIC Procurers Days” and “EIC Multiprocurers Days” with the participation of +100 public or private procurers partners. Are you looking for opportunities to connect with some of the largest public and private procurers of innovation in Europe? Stay tuned to our events calendar!
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.