- Indraventures, Indra's corporate vehicle for open innovation, and the European Innovation Council (EIC), the European Commission's accelerator, have organized an EIC Corporate Day, a match-making event with high-potential, high-impact companies in areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, Phygital, Edge, IoT or quantum technologies
- After issuing a call among the companies that benefit from EIC funding, nearly 130 startups were interested in presenting their most innovative solutions to Indra, which in the end selected 24 companies for the meeting most in line with its future strategy for the match-making event
- Indra seeks to explore possibilities for collaboration with these startups, to strengthen its innovative ecosystem at a global level and to involve its professionals in this one-of-a-kind match-making event
Indra, one of the leading global technology and consulting companies, has held an EIC Corporate Day with more than twenty high-potential, disruptive startups from ten European countries, as well as two Israeli startups, to hear first-hand about their capabilities and proposals, explore opportunities for collaboration and strengthen its global innovative ecosystem.
The EIC Corporate Day, held entirely virtually, has been organized by Indraventures, Indra's corporate vehicle for strengthening the relationship with the entrepreneurial ecosystem and investing in startups, in collaboration with the European Innovation Council (European Innovation Council-EIC), the European Commission's body for startup acceleration.
Last May, after issuing a call among the companies that benefit from EIC funding, to which nearly 130 startups applied, Indra has finally selected the 24 companies with the proposals most in line with its vision and future strategy.
The selected startups have presented their capabilities and solutions to Indra's Innovation Committee and to the heads of its different markets and business areas to evaluate possible collaborations. Moreover, this unique meeting was open to Indra professionals around the world, in line with the goal of generating a more innovative culture throughout the organization.
Additionally, the EIC beneficiaries selected to attend the EIC Corporate Day enjoyed access to training and mentoring by the EIC prior to the event, as well as the opportunity to network with like-minded partners and innovators.
"We are pleasantly surprised to see how many innovative startups have signed up to bring their new ideas, talent, knowledge and disruptive capacity to Indra, and we have chosen those that are closest to our strategy, to what we at the company have in mind about technology as we move forward. At Indra, we have a very open innovation model and we need to build together and cooperate to do real things in the real world," explained Manuel Ausaverri, Indra’s Director of Innovation, Strategy and Sustainability.
Meanwhile, Viorel Peca, head of the EIC Unit, noted that "the EIC Corporate Day is a unique opportunity to enable visionary entrepreneurs not only to grow through collaboration with innovative companies and strategic partners like Indra, but also to share ideas, experiences and knowledge, with the aim of opening new markets that drive a strong economic leadership, which will, in turn, contribute to sustainability, greater resilience, the creation of new jobs and leading the green transition".
The companies that participated in the session were companies of high potential and impact, from different countries in Europe and Israel, in areas where Indra wants to strengthen or boost its leadership, such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, Phygital, Edge, IoT, quantum technologies or neurotechnologies applied to different sectors.
In particular, Securaxis, Cysec, Klepsydra Technologies GmbH and Kido Dynamics, from Switzerland; Cardlab Innovation ApS, from Denmark; Crypto Quantique Limited, from the United Kingdom; Cybernetica AS, from Estonia; Gridhound, Streem.ai and Tawny, from Germany; Ingeniars, from Italy; Light On, Outsight Sas and Pasqal, from France; Sedicii Innovations Limited, from Ireland; Selfly BV and Vinotion BV, from the Netherlands; Viewpointsystem, from Austria; Bit&Brain Technologies, Herta Security, Hidronav Technologies and Next Generation Rail Technologies, from Spain; and Illusive Networks Ltd and L7 Defense Luxembourg, from Israel.
Technological innovation ecosystem
The EIC Corporate Day is one of the initiatives encouraged within the framework of Indra's innovation model, which is open to startups, entrepreneurs, university research groups that are experimenting with emerging technologies and the professionals of the company themselves, which make up a multidisciplinary network of experts from all around the world.
Indra’s objective is to strategically expand and accelerate its capacity to generate and harness potentially attractive ideas for its future business offer, to generate value for customers and to mobilize all the talent of its professionals, stimulating their creativity.
Each year, through Indraventures, Indra analyzes more than a thousand startups, and has signed several agreements. In addition, Indra is a member of the Executive Committee of BFAero, an accelerator in the aeronautical and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector.
Indraventures has also launched various internal initiatives to promote intrapreneurship, such as the Innovators program, which aims to generate disruptive ideas that can be incorporated into its offer and strengthen its technological leadership, while involving the professionals in the company’s transformation, generating synergies and building a new, more innovative culture. Indra has centered the fifth meeting of Innovators, which is currently opened, on designing businesses based on satellite constellations or the interaction between the physical and digital worlds, exploiting data in order to transform air traffic, building customer loyalty through personalization and advancing the inclusion of people with disabilities.
About Indra
Indra (www.indracompany.com) is one of the leading global technology and consulting companies and the technological partner for core business operations of its customers world-wide. It is a world-leader in providing proprietary solutions in specific segments in Transport and Defense markets, and a leading firm in digital transformation and Information Technologies in Spain and Latin America through its affiliate Minsait. Its business model is based on a comprehensive range of proprietary products, with a high-value focus and with a high innovation component. In the 2020 financial year, Indra achieved revenue of €3.043 billion, near 48,000 employees, a local presence in 46 countries and business operations in over 140 countries.
About the European Innovation Council
The European Innovation Council (EIC) supports top-class innovators, entrepreneurs, small companies and scientists with bright ideas and the ambition to scale up internationally. It has been established under the Horizon programme with a budget of €10.1 billion to support game changing innovations throughout the lifecycle from early stage research, to proof of concept, technology transfer, and the financing and scale up of start-ups and SMEs. Support to innovators, entrepreneurs, small companies and scientists under the European Innovation Council goes far beyond a grant provision. The EIC offers several business acceleration services that help speed up the pace of innovation, including business coaching and flagship services like EIC Corporate Days and EIC Investor Days, where highly innovative SMEs can take advantage of pitching and partnering opportunities with investors and corporates.
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