The Explorer Young with entrepreneurship entrepreneurship program, promoted by Santander through Santander Universities and coordinated by the Santander Emprendimiento International Center (CISE), has announced the winners of its X edition in a grand final held in the Group City Santander.
Explorer has awarded the winners with 30,000, 20,000 and 10,000 euros to accelerate the development of their business ideas, after five months of training and mentoring that young people have received in 53 high-performance centers distributed by universities and institutions throughout Spain – in addition to one in Portugal and another in Argentina- and a trip to Silicon Valley for the local winners of the different centers.
The objective of this program, which is convened every year through Santander X – Banco Santander’s global entrepreneurship platform – is to improve the skills, entrepreneurial skills and business strategies of all participants, more than 1,200 in 2019. Thank you To the coordinated work of Banco Santander and CISE with more than 150 public and private institutions throughout the country, Explorer has created more than 600 technology-based companies in the last 10 years.
The best Explorer startups 2019
BactiDec, promoted by José Rodríguez and Carlos de Frías, of the Explorer Space of the University of Santiago de Compostela, has been chosen as the best entrepreneurial idea of the year and recognized with
30,000 euros. This startup biotech has created a device that allows the surgeon to know in real time the number of bacteria present in the surgical wound while operating, allowing an early diagnosis, improving the speed of treatment and avoiding the complications generated by postoperative infections.
The device, printed in 3D and the size of a rubick’s cube, uses spectrophotometric technology and incorporates an algorithm developed by these 5th year medical students that is able to instantly objectify the number of bacteria during a surgical intervention without having to pass for the area of microbiology: the surgeon obtains the information by pressing a button, which saves time, costs to health and helps save lives.
Fibras Naturales Canarias, developed by Néstor Santiago del Gran Canaria Explorer Space, has won the second prize of 20,000 euros, to continue developing its circular economy startup that recovers and transforms, through a patented industrial process, the waste of millions of banana tree trunks to obtain bioplastics.
The third prize, of 10,000 euros, has been for MyRealFood, promoted by Sofía Belenguer and Antonio Mancha, of the Explorer Space of the Pompeu Fabra University: a mobile app that allows to know the nutritional quality of food and that uses suggested recipes, gamification and A community to keep users motivated. The application uses an algorithm that is based on the “NOVA System” of food classification and qualifies them as “real food”, “good processed” or “ultraprocessed”, so the user can scan the product’s barcode or search for it in the database and know your rating.
BactiDec, Fibras Naturales Canarias and MyRealFood, have been selected by a jury composed of representatives of Banco Santander, CISE, SECOT and other collaborating entities, among the 55 winning projects of the various Explorer Spaces.
Female leadership and technological disruption
The startup BAR-ID of entrepreneurs Laura San Felipe and Eva Sarachaga, has won the prize for the best initiative promoted by a woman. This startup of the biotech sector from the Explorer Space of the Carlos III University of Madrid, is complemented by BactiDec’s proposal and applies mass spectrometry technology to diagnose, in less than an hour and precisely, the presence of multiresistant bacteria . Thanks to the collaboration with the EY Foundation, they have received 20,000 euros to continue developing their business and access to the Atenea acceleration program, which connects high-potential women entrepreneurs with advisors and resources for their projects.
On the other hand, the startup AItenea promoted by Carlos Roca of the Explorer Space of the Complutense University of Madrid, has won the prize for the most disruptive technology, offered by Indra in the framework of the Explorer program. This project develops, through Deep Learning, a prediction model of drug properties much faster than current computational techniques, which accelerates the development and discovery of new drugs. AItenea will receive 3,000 euros and advice from Indraventures experts to accelerate its development.
Also published on Medium.