Saragossa has established itself as a reference center for mobility, commerce and smart cities startups. The Salta 2022 entrepreneurial acceleration program closed its first edition with the celebration of its demo day, in which the seven finalist startups presented their projects.
An appointment held in which technology applied to companies and the urban environment acted as a common thread, consolidating this initiative as one of the main launchers of entrepreneurial projects in its initial phase and startups that are looking for their definitive leap into the market.
The Salta 2022 program held at the Etopia Center of Art and Technology and organized by the Ibercaja Foundation together with the Zaragoza City Council and the Zaragoza City of Knowledge Foundation, arises with the aim of promoting the go to market of entrepreneurial projects on three specific areas: mobility, commerce and markets and smartcity solutions.
The first focuses on the challenges presented by populations in the area of new mobility, while the area of commerce and markets has focused on seeking innovative proposals who advocate new business models related to the promotion of local trade. Ultimately, the SmartCity vertical aimed to promote those projects that develop the efficiency and sustainability of city ecosystems through the use of urban data.
The winning teams had a few words of thanks to each of the organizations promoting the entrepreneurial acceleration program for their involvement during these months and for the range of opportunities that they have provided for the participating teams.
Marc and Xavi, Co-CEOSs of Wecaria extended this congratulations to the Salta 2022 mentoring team and in this sense, recognized that: “Wecaria has evolved a lot, the project that we present today is not the same as the one that came in”. Pedro Jiménez Cortés from Light, expected “To make Zaragoza an active community of users who fight together against climate change”. Timblo celebrated having found in Salta 2022 a “community of people working for people”.
Test bench for innovative solutions
The director of relations with Google developers, Andrés L. Martínez, the head of the professional development area of Fundación Ibercaja, Mayte Santos; the managing director of the Zaragoza City of Knowledge Foundation, Daniel Sarasa or the co-founder of the creative technologies studio Imascono, Pedro Lozano, were some of the participants in the event, in which they shared their respective professional experiences with the selected startups.
The head of the Professional Development area of Fundación Ibercaja, Mayte Santos, pointed out that: “Entrepreneurship is one of the fundamental pillars of employability today. The entrepreneur, and specifically startups, are, in addition to an option to generate employment, the main source of innovation for companies today. For this reason, for Fundación Ibercaja it is a priority to promote programs such as Salta to connect this personal talent with companies. We believe that it is essential to generate opportunities that promote our territory, where the public-private alliance is also essential to achieve this objective”.
The director of the Zaragoza City of Knowledge Foundation, Daniel Sarasa, explained that: “One of the objectives that we had set for 2022 was the promotion of technology-based entrepreneurship, and Salta 2022 constitutes the best response to this challenge since it places Zaragoza as a test bed for innovative solutions, and it also does so using one of our best assets such as institutional collaboration. Building an innovation ecosystem like the one that exists around Etopia is a long-term task that requires both attracting external talent and cultivating local talent. When one sees the companies of Salta 2022, one realizes that this objective has clearly been achieved”
