Foment Up is looking for Data & IoT Startups to connect with Gas Natural Fenosa

• Our main mission is to identify emerging companies that drive the innovation in a specific sector, for which we offer tailor-made programs that include the participation of mentors from leading companies in their sector.

• The first edition with Gas Natural Fenosa offers an adhoc learning program with workshops to validate their Business model and masterclasses with data & IoT experts.

• Foment UP is the new corporate accelerator that Foment del Treball offers to their associates to create tailor-made programs.

Foment del Treball launched Foment Up, a corporate accelerator program that facilitates strategic partnerships  between corporates and startups in Barcelona. The first edition with Gas Natural Fenosa is looking for Data & IoT Startups. Foment del Treball have the support of ACCIÓ, Rousaud Costas Duran and Barcelona Tech City.

The presentation panel of Foment Up were composed of  Presidente de Foment del Treball, Joaquim Gay de Montellà, directora general de Personas y Recursos de Gas Natural Fenosa, Rosa Mª Sanz , Directora de Foment Up, Maria Mora,  directora de Innovación Tecnológica de Gas Natural Fenosa, Mónica Puente  and directora general d’Indústria de la Generalitat de Catalunya & Consejera Delegada de ACCIÓ, Núria Betriu.

Foment President, Joaquim Gay de Montellà, in his speech, emphasized  that “It’s an honor to start the program with Gas Natural Fenosa”. He added, “It’s very positive to have the support of ACCIÓ because they show a clear example of public-private collaboration that benefits the Catalan economy”.

Gay de Montellà highlighted the importance of innovation, “there’s no future without innovation”. In a world where Technology and Business models are changing quickly it’s obvious to think that the Business confederation of employers needs to be at the cutting edge of innovation. Foment UP is truly an innovative project in all senses.

Rosa Mª Sanz (directora general de Personas y Recursos de Gas Natural Fenosa) explained that “in GNF we push for innovation because it’s our way to grow and develop our business model in a fast-changing business environment. “With Foment Up we can bring talent, infrastructure and knowledge to startups”.

Mónica Puente (Directora Innovación Tecnologica in Gas Natural Fenosa) said, “Through this startup accelerator program our company seeks to develop innovative ideas and bring to market intelligent solutions that bring value to our clients and let us build long term relationships”.

Nuria Betriu (directora general de Industria de la Generalitat de Catalunya y consejera delegada de ACCIÓ) remarked, “Catalonia plays an important role as an economic and industrial powerhouse in Southern Europe. Our ingredient for success is to connect corporates with strong entrepreneurial spirit, overseas multinationals and dynamic startups.

Betriu also defended that, “Projects related to corporate venturing and Open innovation have more sense than ever. We are talking about talent, emerging technologies, identifying initiatives and bringing them to market. Programs such as Foment Up connect talent, innovation and the market.

Maria Mora Foment Up Director emphasized that, “the value of this program is to build long- term strategic partnerships”.

“Programs related to Corporate Venturing and Open Innovation have more sense than ever”

Núria Betriu

“With Foment Up we can bring talent, infrastructure and knowledge to startups”

Rosa Mª Sanz

“Through this startup accelerator program our company seeks to develop innovative ideas and bring to market intelligent solutions that bring value to our clients and let us build long term relationships”.

Mónica Puente

Energy & Data de Gas Natural Fenosa

The program of the first edition of Foment UP, developed jointly with Gas Natural Fenosa, is Energy & Data’s motto and its main objective is to support innovative startups in the Data and IoT sector, with the aim of contributing to the evolution of both Business projects and the development of the technologies in which they work. Through an advanced program of training and mentoring of the entrepreneurial team, the assignment of spaces for the development of its activity during the program and the possibility of developing a pilot test of its technology, will try to optimize and perfect its project for its suitability to the market.

The Program is aimed at Big Data & IoT companies in the process of being constituted, or already constituted, whose activity or knowledge allows them to develop value propositions for Gas Natural Fenosa’s residential customers, based on IoT technologies, such as:

• Data sensing technologies / distributed data capture, global or disaggregated.
• Communication protocol.
• Storage / data processing captured by IoT devices as well as sociodemographic data available as business data.

This challenge relates to gas and electricity energy consumption data.

In summary, we are looking for companies that have an entrepreneurial team capable of presenting innovative solutions for development of value propositions for their customers, who see an opportunity in the use of the systems and products offered by the company, and who are interested in sharing their talent and knowledge with Gas Natural Fenosa.

Strategic partnerships between startups and corporates in Barcelona

Foment UP, the corporate accelerator of Foment, was born with the objective of identifying a number of emerging companies and offering them the opportunity to generate innovative models for established corporations, in order to increase the projection and visibility of the startups and position them in a market with greater opportunities. As a corporate accelerator, Foment UP offers Foment del Treball companies the possibility to define individualized programs according to the different cooperation models they wish to investigate.

The role of Foment Up is to:

• Definition of a strategic framework.- Alignment with corporate strategy, objectives definition, offering and returns and corporative image.
• Public Presentation.- Make the program’s communication and expansion concrete. Define the communication strategy to attract startups.
• Scouting and signing agreements.-  Evaluation and Selection of teams. Face-to-face meetings with the startups. Negotiation of the acceleration agreements
• Acceleration process: Corporates offer startups the following: workshops, mentoring, co working spaces, regular monitoring meetings and training to attract investment.
• Demo Day.- Contact with Business Angels networks, funds and entities interested in expanding financial investment. Public Demo Day.