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The EmprendeXXI Awards recognise startups that are responding to the challenges of the future
CaixaBank, through DayOne, has presented the national awards of the 19th edition of the EmprendeXXI Awards, aimed at recognising startups with the capacity to respond, through innovation, to different social, economic and environmental challenges.
The EmprendeXXI Awards, promoted by CaixaBank through DayOne, its division specializing in technology companies and their investors, have held the national ceremony for their 19th edition. The programme is aimed at technology-based and innovative companies in Spain and Portugal and recognises initiatives focused on improving people’s lives, transforming economic sectors and contributing to the care of the planet.
In this edition, the awards have focused on identifying business projects that, through innovation and technology, provide concrete responses to the main challenges facing society and today’s economic environment. The awards are co-granted with the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, through Enisa, in Spain, and with Banco BPI in Portugal, in their territorial phase.
Eight awards for the Challenges of Tomorrow
In this edition, the National Challenges of Tomorrow Awards have recognised eight startups with high impact potential, grouped into three categories: Human & Wellbeing, Business Transformation and Living Planet.
In the Human & Wellbeing category, the award in the Health Challenge – Healthtech & Bio went to Batea Oncology (Galicia), for the development of an innovative medical device aimed at transforming the treatment of glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive brain tumour. In the Generation+ Wellbeing Challenge, the recognised startup was Second Hundred (Catalonia), thanks to a solution that enables blood tests to be carried out from home in a simple, painless and accessible way, making it easier to monitor the health of older people. Meanwhile, REWOOX (Andalusia) was awarded in the Education, Culture and Leisure Challenge, with a proposal based on immersive training experiences supported by virtual reality and artificial intelligence. In the Tourism and Travel Challenge, the winner was Voltic (Balearic Islands), which helps hotels reduce their energy consumption through a wireless plug&play system to optimise air conditioning and room consumption.
In the Business Transformation category, the award for the Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Forestry and related Industry Challenge went to Veganic (Valencian Community), for its vegan and cruelty-free biosolutions for crop nutrition and protection, aimed at more efficient and sustainable agriculture. In the Industry 4.0, Manufacturing, Construction and Transport Challenge, the award-winning company was Aridditive (Catalonia), which is transforming the construction sector through 3D printing technology and low environmental impact materials. Likewise, GPT Advisor (Valencian Community) received recognition in the Financial Services, Trade and Business Support Challenge, with generative artificial intelligence agents designed to improve the productivity of financial advisors and automate analysis and information processes.
In the Living Planet category, the award for the Environment and Decarbonisation Challenge went to ATOM H2 (Catalonia), whose solution combines lithium and solid-state hydrogen batteries to capture and store surplus renewable energy and replace diesel generators with clean and reliable backup energy systems.
Cross-cutting runner-up awards and recognition of achievement
In addition to the eight main awards, the organisation presented two cross-cutting runner-up awards. The Social Impact Runner-up Award, for the company whose value proposition focuses on generating a positive impact on society through its business model, went to Polar Nanopharma (Catalonia), for its development of smart nanomedicines aimed at improving cancer treatments. The Disruptive Innovation Runner-up Award, created to recognise the most disruptive technological innovation, deeptech or frontier tech, went to AjaxDNA (Valencian Community), which is driving technology to accelerate the creation of new pharmaceutical therapies through digital models of biological systems and a cellular teleprogramming platform.
Meanwhile, the Alumni Career Achievement Award went to Idoven (Madrid), recognised for its growth and global impact. The company, a pioneer in ehealth, has developed an assistant for diagnosing cardiac arrhythmias that combines artificial intelligence and wearable medical technology.
Beyond the financial prize, the winning and finalist companies in the Challenges of Tomorrow, as well as the runner-up award winners, will have access to the international support programme Moonshot Thinking for Entrepreneurs, organised in collaboration with ESADE and ICEX in Berlin. Likewise, all the companies awarded in this 19th edition have obtained direct approval of the degree of innovation in the Certification of Emerging Companies from the Government of Spain, granted by Enisa.
Nineteen years promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem
Since its creation in 2007, the EmprendeXXI Awards have become one of the leading recognitions for startups in Spain and Portugal. Throughout its 19 editions, the programme has invested more than 10 million euros in prizes and support initiatives, benefiting more than 560 companies.
In this edition, in addition to the national phase, nineteen regional awards were presented to the companies with the greatest impact in their territories: seventeen in Spain, one per autonomous community, and two in Portugal, corresponding to the northern-central and Lisbon South and Islands areas.
With this new edition, CaixaBank DayOne reinforces its commitment to promoting innovative entrepreneurship and supporting technology companies that are expected to play a relevant role in the economic, social and environmental transformation of the future.