- This mission will help to bring the innovation ecosystems of Europe and Mexico closer together in order to promote public-private partnerships, especially in the agricultural sector.
- CDI Corporativo is Finnova’s partner for the implementation of the Mexico StartUp Europe Awards in the Agritech, Social Innovation, Water, Clima
- te and Gastronomy categories.
- For the third edition of the StartUp Europe Awards, the initiative expands from Europe to other countries, starting with Latin America and specifically Mexico.
Brussels, 25th August 2018. StartUp Europe Awards, an initiative of the European Commission -DG Connect-and the Finnova Foundation to promote local entrepreneurship and open innovation, will be implemented in Mexico thanks to Startup Europe Accelerator of Finnova and the Mexican partner CDI Corporativo (Integral Development Corporative for its Spanish acronym), a holding company with more than 10 years of experience in the agrifood sector that offers integral solutions for the public and private sectors in the areas of public policy, organizational development, communication, training, economics, commercial and market.
The StartUp Europe Awards is supported by the Commissioner for the Environment, Karmenu Vella, the Commissioner for Innovation, Carlos Moedas, and the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani. The initiative promotes open innovation and collaboration between the different actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, through public-private partnerships to support local startups so that they can scale up their services and products globally with the help of this network. It is also supported by Finnova’s StartUp Europe Accelerator.
StartUp Europe Awards is part of Startup Europe, an initiative of the European Commission that aims to promote networking between professionals and startups, to help them expand their market and to promote recognition.
“We are going to transfer the good practices of StartUp Europe Awards as the public-private partnership to improve the citizens’ quality of life thanks to technological innovation, and particularly in the agritech sector we will help to enable Mexican and European entities to collaborate with the help of European funds for innovation”, states Juan Manuel Revuelta, Finnova’s Managing Director. The Horizon 2020 programme will provide EUR 115.00 million for technology cooperation in the period 2021 – 2028.
Mexico StartUp Europe Awards will be co-organized by the local partner CDI Corporativo, whose main focus is the Agritech category, a strategic sector for the country and of great importance in terms of trade for the European Union.
“The agri-food sector in Mexico faces a great challenge of modernization linked to innovation and digital technology, and for this reason we see the need for an initiative to connect the Mexican countryside with the entrepreneurial ecosystem through the StartUp Europe Awards” says Marco Antonio Herrera Oropeza, CEO of the Mexican holding company CDI Corporativo.
Among the challenges that can be addressed with the help of startups are the improvement of production chains, the valorisation of waste, the reutilisation of water, the improvement of food quality, the impact of climate change, renewable energies and the implementation of a culture of continuous and inclusive innovation.
Finnova’s mission in Mexico also aims to make Mexican entrepreneurs and Spanish residents aware of the networking, mobility, training and financing opportunities offered by the European Union, as well as current programmes and calls for proposals such as H2020, entrepreneurial Erasmus, among many other programmes. For the European Union, the funding of innovative projects is a priority and for this reason it allocates EUR 90 billion in the current financial period through the H2020 programme for this purpose.
The third edition of the StartUp Europe Awards will recognise the most innovative startups from Europe and other continents. The final of the first edition of these awards was held at the European Parliament where 15 startups were awarded and the final of the second edition will be held on next November 15th in Sofia with Startup Europe of the European Commission.
Finnova’s objective is to continue these missions in other Latin American countries such as Chile, Panama and Colombia, countries that have already shown interest in replicating the StartUp Europe Awards initiative.
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