Komilibro, nominated for Creative StartUp Europe Awards Spain after receiving first prize in Cultural Industries Summit Valencia
- The application for looking books according to interests Komilibro receives the nomination to the national Spanish final of Startup Europe Awards in the Creative category.
- Cultural Industries Summit is member of StartUp Europe Awards Alliance and held its competition of cultural startups in the Complejo La Pechina of Valencia.
- The Director of Creative Startup Europe Awards has presented StartUp Europe Awards, the initiative promoted by the European Commission and implemented by Finnova.
Valencia, July 4, 2016. Komilibro, the mobile application that recommends books by interests and moods, was the winner of the first prize of Cultural Industries Summit (CIS), the first forum of cultural entrepreneurship of Valencia. At this event is member of StartUp Europe Awards Alliance, Komilibro has received a direct nomination for the national final in Spain of the StartUp Europe Awards in the Creative category. Moreover, as winner of the Cultural Industries Summit, Komilibro received a cash prize of 1,000 euros, 6 months in the coworking space Wayco and mentoring to boost its project by Intermedia Fresh Thinking Agency, organizers of the Summit.
Komilibro leader, Javier Calvo, thanked StartUp Europe Awards and remarked that it is “a great opportunity for visibility for our project at European level, to access funding and other important resources”.
The director of Creative StartUp Europe Awards Nela Gomez pointed out “the effort of this project to provide a new solution that also promotes reading. We are proud to nominate Komilibro, which has over 1000 downloads and a crowdfunding campaign ended successfully. “
The second prize in the CIS has been for the startup B-SIDE CITY, a technological app for innovation in culture and leisure in cities; and the Audience Award went to Open Stage, whose audiovisual proposal considers the city as a big stage.
StartUp Europe Awards presentation on Cultural Industries Summit
Nela Gomez has presented the StartUp Europe Awards initiative, promoted by the European Commission and implemented by Finnova in collaboration with StartUp Europe, which aims to create an alliance of startups awards organizers in Europe and on the other hand, recognize the efforts of European startups in 8 categories (environment, social innovation, information technologies and communication, energy, tourism, cities, creative industries and water), in five geographic levels (local, county, regional, national and European).
Within the Cultural Industries Summit, Nela Gomez participated in the round table “European vision of cultural industries” presenting the program that Finnova co-organizes in Brussels, “Creative StartUp Europe” and other initiatives to support cultural entrepreneurship in Europe.
The director of European Funds for Finnova, Juan Viesca, participated in the round table “Funding and cultural and social innovation” where he introduced different programs and calls for project funding, which can be for cultural initiatives such as H2020 Instrument SMEs, Erasmus + and Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs. “There are other programs beyond Creative Europe. For Europe, cultural projects that can help solve social challenges are among the priorities in funding, and we must take advantage of it in Spain, because otherwise the money will go to others”, concluded Viesca.
Startup Europe comes to Madrid
Startup Europe, the European Commission’s flagship initiative for startups, was in Madrid on the 27th of June to meet the main players of the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Spain has been one of the main countries for two Startup Europe projects: WELCOME and Startup Europe Partnership (SEP).
WELCOME has brought dozens of Spanish startups (such as Wayook, Videona, BeOnPrice) across Europe to make business and gain visibility and SEP has developed a European-wide matchmaking club for the best startups and corporates (Telefonica, BBVA, etc.).
The meet-up was held at 17:00 at IE Business School with the objective to have an open discussion on the impact of the Startup Europe initiative in Spain, how it could improve and how can European Commission collaborate with the Spanish ecosystem to develop more opportunities for startups and promote entrepreneurship.
The opening was delivered by Professor Paris de L´Etraz, Director of the Venture Lab Accelerator of IE Business School. Isidro Laso Ballesteros, Head of Unit for Startup Europe, led the discussion together with the project coordinators, Emilio Corchado from BISITE Accelerator (WELCOME) and Alberto Onetti from Mind the Bridge (SEP).
In attendance were various representatives from corporates, accelerators, investors, media and startups (such as Connector, Endeavor, TetuanValley, Fundera.eu, Google Campus, Banco Sabadell, Global Exchange) ensuring a rich and community-led discussion.
There was a general feeling that Spain and especially Madrid is a great place to start a startup, even if that isn’t a well-known fact outside of its borders. Overall, it was felt that the government should listen to the needs of the startup ecosystem and provide support where needed, otherwise not intervene. A particular call to action was to make conditions better for startups to scale up, namely with what concerns tax and fiscal regulation.
The meeting was very organic and fluid as members of the Spanish ecosystem are well aware of each other. The final point of the meeting was to invite everyone to attend the next IE venture day, 6th of July.
At 19:00, there was a press moment followed by networking and cocktail, where journalists had the opportunity to seize the room.
Professor Paris de L´Etraz, Director of the Venture Lab Accelerator of IE Business School, welcoming the attendees.
Isidro Laso Ballesteros, Head of Unit for Startup Europe, presenting the initiative and engaging with the local startup community.
Alberto Onetti from Mind the Bridge (SEP) presenting the results of the project an opportunities for corporates.
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Emilio Corchado from BISITE Accelerator (WELCOME) presenting opportunities for Spanish startups
WELCOME project – www.welcomestartup.eu
Short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWsjVt-lzp4
WELCOME strives to break down the barriers between 5 different major EU startup ecosystems (Berlin, Dublin, Milan, Madrid and Salamanca) and help tech startups to go international from the start.
Startup Europe Partnership – http://startupeuropepartnership.eu
Short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdOT9GdIeqI
Startup Europe Partnership is a platform where the best startups meet the best corporates, with a goal: to make things happen, whether that means procurement (corporates buy products and services from startups), strategic investments and eventually acquisition/acqui-hires.