After passing through Oviedo, Cartagena and Bilbao, the next stop of the roadshow’s sixth edition was Andalusia, on Thursday 16 March. Organised by Banco Sabadell’s BStartup, SeedRocket and Wayra, Telefonica’s open innovation initiative, joined also by Google for Startups as partner, the roadshow continues to pursue the same goals: to seek the best opportunities available in each region and to offer early-stage startups a chance to present their project to investors and build a high-quality network of contacts.

During its fourth stop, at La Farola, the acceleration space of Andalucía Open Future located on Concejal Muñoz Cerván in Malaga, attendees were able to experience and learn about the local ecosystem thanks to local partners including Andalucía Emprende, of the Autonomous Government of Andalusia (Junta de Andalucía), Lean Finance and Andalucía Open Future.

The four finalist startups were:

• Cober.io: Insurtech solution designed to help eCommerce and Retail organisations increase their conversion rates, NPS, AOV and GMV thanks to innovative proposals, embedded in the purchasing experience, related to assistance and insurance.
• Dencanto Community: Digital platform for the promotion and sale of international immersion programmes (courses, work internships, accommodation and cultural activities).
• Genengine: Software designed to help doctors use genetics in an effective way to speed up the diagnosis of patients with rare diseases, improving the efficiency of healthcare systems.
• Voicit: Extension to carry out advanced analytics of data from meetings and interviews through the creation of automatic, personalised documentation in order to improve the efficiency and quality of the services offered by companies and firms.

Also taking part in the event was Miguel Arias, K Fund general partner, SeedRocket mentor and startup investor, who gave the entrepreneurs in attendance a keynote speech about what he had learned during his time as an investor in seed-stage capital, as a business angel, and as former Global Entrepreneurship Director of Wayra. Arias’ expertise shone through during his explanations about the importance of reputation and the differential value that investors bring to the table, about how companies’ portfolios should be managed to achieve optimal results, and about the importance for new companies of return on investment and the generation of business.

Dencanto, the winning startup of Venture on the Road in Malaga, is guaranteed a spot in the national final, which will take place on 15 June in Madrid, alongside the winning projects from other cities. It will also form part of the Google Cloud digital natives programme, with up to 10,000 dollars in credit valid for 9 months and technical follow-up with Google Cloud engineers, in addition to enjoying priority access to advanced training in the Google Cloud Platform training programmes.

The winning proposal of the national final of the 6th edition of Venture on the Road will be awarded a package of support from all the partners, including specialist consulting in finance or marketing valued at 3,000 euros provided by BStartup, participation as a guest project in the SeedRocket Entrepreneurs Campus, and space in the Wayra offices for 6-12 months, as well as access to events, training sessions, workshops and contacts.

“Here at Wayra Spain, we are delighted to have ventured out of our major hubs in Madrid and Barcelona once again this year, making our way through the rest of the country in search of entrepreneurial talent. Thanks to the previous editions of Venture on the Road, we have found disruptive startups that are already revolutionising the markets in which they operate. A lucky few have also become part of our ecosystem. Today in Malaga it has been really tough to pick just one out of so many extremely interesting and promising projects, but ultimately Dencanto Community was declared the winner, so congratulations to them” said Paloma Castellano, director of Wayra Madrid.

Venture on the Road will soon visit other Spanish cities to find talent and promising startups at the regional level outside Madrid and Barcelona, the two leading tech hubs in Spain. The event has already been to Oviedo, Cartagena, Bilbao and Malaga, and it will soon also visit Valladolid and Alicante before the final, which will take place in Madrid.

Don’t miss the next stop of Venture on the Road in Valladolid!