The Madrid Capital FinTech (MAD FinTech) cluster has presented its renewed Project Board to apply for NextGenerationEU European funds together with leading consultancies and companies, which will guide startups, SMEs and companies seeking funding to innovate and create jobs. This mentoring club will meet every Tuesday to analyse new projects.
For this reason, the MAD FinTech cluster has created a Project Board led by Accenture, Moore, Equifax, Iberinform, Vector ITC and Sapiens, who will guide the cluster partners through the entire itinerary: from the adaptation of their projects to the requirements established by the Administrations in charge of selecting the projects, to the support and accompaniment throughout the process, including the search for potential partners to create synergies.
Spain is expected to receive around 70 billion euros from these funds for economic recovery and reactivation of Spanish companies and priority economic sectors. But many details are still unknown about how it will work or what activities will be prioritised.
If your company is not yet a member of MAD FinTech, fill in this form, join us and join the Project Board to apply for European funding and change the world.
With this in mind, the webinar on NextGenerationEU funds brought together almost a hundred companies around:
Salvador Molina, Chairman of Foro ECOFIN and the MAD FinTech cluster;
José Luis Moreno, Director General of Economy, Madrid City Council;
Alberto Zamora, Director of Public Services at Accenture;
Oscar Méndez, Director of Institutional and Corporate Relations at Moore Stephens International;
Carlos Ollero, Director of Data and Analytics at Equifax;
Ignacio Jiménez, General Manager of Iberinform (Atradius Crédito y Caución);
Ofelia Santiago, Director of Santiago Consultores and expert in coaching and organisational transformation;
Luis Asensio, Director of the Banking Sector at Vector ITC (Softtek Group).
This Project Board also has the support of Madrid City Council, which has already created “a governance structure for the Funds”, explained José Luis Moreno, Director General for the Economy, who also revealed that, in the coming days, a Resilience Plan will be presented with the projects they are already working on to present to the Funds, and that they already have 25 expressions of interest with private institutions. “We are totally open to collaborate with the 340 companies” that participate in the different clusters of the City Council: Big Data, Cybersecurity, Circular Economy, Digitalisation, Mobility, Video Games, etc.
Innovative Projects
The Webinar began with an important explanation that, by way of a summary, served to place the participants in the context of the funds. It explained, for example, what the objectives of the NextGenerationEU funds are, which, in the words of Alberto Zamora (Accenture), gives an idea of what type of projects will be prioritised. This is very important for the companies that apply, as, with this information in hand, they will be able to adjust their proposals.
In any case, there will be an indispensable basis for any project: on the one hand, “projects where several companies can be brought together make more sense”, explained Zamora; on the other hand, “the projects must be transformative, with a high impact on GDP and employment”, he added. And this gives an idea of the priority objectives: technology, care for the environment, job creation and the gender gap.
Of course, these labels can be used for both large-scale projects and projects requiring financing of less than 100,000 euros, which Óscar Méndez explained can also be channelled through auditors who are responsible for guiding their promoters. The MAD FinTech cluster will make these types of services available to member companies.
The webinar was attended by Carmen Rodríguez, managing partner of FinTech Venture Consulting, and Aaron Chaves, partner of CU&E, who will participate in the Project Table and will be in charge of helping these companies with smaller projects. They will do so through the HUB MAD FinTech, an innovative collaboration centre that the cluster will set up to offer a package of integrated services to its member companies, which will be officially presented on 15 April in a webinar to be held at 17.00 hours. Registration is open on this link.
Banking, FinTech and Insurance
Due to the boost that the cluster and the ECOFIN Forum are giving to the Financial, Banking and FinTech sector, the Project Board will have the support of Vector ITC, whose accumulated experience, as Luis Asensio explained, will be at the service of the projects presented. All with the aim of “bringing the projects to fruition and successfully executing them, and serving companies and society”, he stressed.
In addition, the insurance sector will also have a special weight thanks to the support of Sapiens, which will be responsible for guiding companies that can contribute value in this regard, either individually or in collaboration with others.
And, of course, there will be global support for each project and company that will go beyond the specific support to achieve funding: expert accompaniment to transform from the root. “There is a very important part of all the projects, which is the integral transformation in the face of technological transformation”, explained Ofelia Santiago, who will be in charge of revolutionising the companies.
First projects
En el Webinar sobre la Mesa de Proyectos se presentaron las tres primeras iniciativas en las que ya se está trabajando:
Digital Seniors: an ambitious training programme in digital skills for seniors, with the aim of training 5 million people thanks to new technologies, but also in face-to-face format. It is driven by Luis Castillo, CEO of SeniorsLeading, together with other members of the cluster’s Silver Economy Committee.
Bullahoop: its aim is to transfer to the West the digital hubs that are taking Asia by storm, and which allow a single application to be used to manage all kinds of activities, from communication to payments, bookings, transport, etc. It will focus on the creation of a Marketplace to bring together these parameters and facilitate local commerce. Led by Javier Castillo and Álvaro Fontaneda, co-founders of Starpay; together with a consortium of Spanish and foreign SMEs such as Tantum and other MAD FinTech partners.
Graphesol: an innovative industrial project aimed at transforming urban waste into energy generators thanks to chemistry and graphene. Led by Eugenio Martí, founder of Graphesol. Alejandro Enesco, technical advisor to the Madrid City Council’s Directorate General of Economy, confirmed that the Madrid City Council is analysing this technology for implementation in its waste treatment plants. This project focuses on the generation of hydrogen as a new source of renewable energy for urban transport.
“Today marks a before and an after, a beginning of this Project Table”. With this sentence Salvador Molina closed a webinar that will also change Spanish society and the Spanish economy, with a global impact.
If your company is not yet a member of MAD FinTech, fill in this form, join us and join the Project Board to apply for European funding and change the world.
