FAQS

Below you will find the answers to FAQs relating to participation in the Start-Up AwardsXXI. Look for the answer to your question and if you can’t find it, don’t hesitate to contact us; we’ll be more than happy to help.

1. Who can apply?

Young innovative companies with their registered office in Spain or Portugal which meet the participation requirements and started their business activity after 1 January 2021 may apply for the Start-Up Awards XXI.

2. Which awards can I apply for?

Simply submitting your entry gives you the chance to win these awards:

Regional Award: the company with the greatest impact in its territory will receive €6000 and a training programme at a leading innovation hub. All companies in a territory compete for this award, regardless of their sector. This contest grants 19 awards. In Spain an award is granted for each of the 17 Autonomous Communities and two awards are granted in Portugal (one award for the North/Central Area, and another for Lisbon/South and the Islands).
18th Anniversary Awards: for the most innovative companies with the highest potential to solve the challenges presented, each category winner will receive €20,000 and access to an international mentoring program. All companies that can provide solutions to the proposed challenges are eligible to compete for this award. A total of 6 awards will be granted:
- SOCIAL IMPACT: awarded to the company with the most positive influence on society.
- SUSTAINABILITY: awarded to the most sustainable company based on ESG criteria (Environmental, Social, and Governance).
- DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION: awarded to the company with the most disruptive technological innovation project.
- SCALABILITY: awarded to the company with the highest growth potential and ability to create a global impact.
- AGRO BOOST: awarded to the company that transforms the agri-food industry by incorporating technological innovation in its production.
- FINTECH: awarded to the company committed to transformation in the financial and insurance sector.

Mentoring Program: the 19 winners of the Regional Phase, as well as the 6 winners and 12 finalists of the 18th Anniversary Awards, will gain access to an international training program at a global innovation hub, delivered in collaboration with ESADE and MIT in Boston.
During the 18th edition, a program will be launched in collaboration with CaixaBank, through which candidate companies, AlumniXXI members, and DayOne clients will have the opportunity to present their solutions to address the challenges proposed by the CaixaBank Group.
Additionally, all award-winning companies will join the AlumniXXI Community and participate in the EmprendeXXI Investors Day.

3. Can I win more than one award in one edition?

You can win them all! The selection processes and juries of the different awards granted in a specific edition are totally independent. Therefore, the same company could win both the award in its territory and one or more of the 18th Anniversary Awards.

4. If I already won an award in a previous edition, can I apply again?

A company cannot win the same award twice, but it can apply for the other awards. Thus, for example, a company that was the winner at the national level in a previous edition can apply again and compete for one of the 18th Anniversary Awards, but it would be excluded from the regional awards it has already won, and vice versa.

5. Who am I competing against?

In the Regional Category, all the companies which have applied in that territory compete in the award for the company with high impact in its territory. There are 19 territories involved in the competition: the 17 Autonomous Communities of Spain and 2 areas of Portugal (North/Centre and Lisbon/South and the Islands).

In the 18th Anniversary Awards category, companies compete against all other companies in the same category they registered for, regardless of their region of origin. During the application process, companies must select a maximum of 2 (two) 18th Anniversary Awards for which they want to compete with their application.

6. I am a freelance employee. Can I apply?

No, only profit-seeking legally incorporated companies can apply.

7. Can projects without an incorporated company apply?

No, it is necessary to have an incorporated company when presenting the candidacy. Exceptionally, candidates whose constitution date is set in January 2025 may be admitted, provided they have a minimum viable product already on the market.

8. What is the period to present the candidacy?

Applications open on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, at 9:00 a.m., and close on Thursday, December 5, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. (all times are in GMT+1). The organisation reserves the right to extend the end date, which will be announced through this website.

9. How can I submit my application?

You have to fill in the form which you can access through the Awards website: https://www.emprendedorxxi.es/en.

10. Can I modify the details of my candidacy?

Yes, you may modify the details until the end date to present a candidacy or until you close your candidacy by submitting it.

11. I do not yet have the required documents, can I present my application?

We need the required documents to verify that your application meets the participation requirements and they are therefore essential. Not presenting these documents may lead to your candidacy being discarded.

12. How are the winners chosen?

The first stage reviews the eligibility of the candidacies. The candidacies that do not meet the legal bases or which have not presented the required documentation are ruled out from the process.

Later, all the candidacies are scored. All the evaluators have evaluation tables that specify the criteria to be assessed and the scores to be assigned based on said criteria. The candidacies are reviewed by several evaluators. Once the candidacies have been evaluated, rankings are created by category of challenges and these are sent to the different selection bodies.

Each award has an independent selection process. This means that there will be 50 technical committees and juries to select the more than 30 regional winners and the winners and finalists of the 18th Anniversary Awards. This phase requires the candidates to present and defend their application in person before the committee or jury either in person or virtual.

13. How is transparency ensured during the selection process?

The formality, independence and transparency of the selection process is one of the elements that define these Awards, therefore we take special care to ensure these aspects. Some of the mechanisms that we have established are:

The evaluation is carried out based on clearly established criteria and scores in evaluation tables used by the evaluators.
The committees and juries work based on operating guidelines that establish, among other aspects: how to manage conflicts of interest, the voting and tied scores.
We invite the winners from previous editions to the juries so that they know how the selection process first hand and can verify the transparency in the process.

14. What is evaluated?

The following criteria will be taken into account when evaluating candidates:

Team: commitment, dedication, and risk assumed by the entrepreneurial team; suitability of the team’s experience/training to the needs of the business; completeness of the team and capacity to attract talent; motivation; existence of Boards of Directors and the profile of the experts, etc.
Business model: value chain and monetisation of the business model; competition analysis; capacity to attract customers; commercial and marketing plan; potential and capacity for globalisation; capacity or probability of having the necessary resources to implement the business plan; internal and historical coherence of financial projections, etc.
Ambition: size and growth projection of the accessible market; scalability; existing and expected competition; concentration of customers; ambition and strength of sales projections; expected gross margin; job creation, etc.
Innovation: level of innovation of the product or service; suitable analysis of customer needs; competitive advantages and barriers to entry; positioning with respect to competition, etc.
History: revenue and/or financing achieved; results obtained with respect to the resources employed, etc.

For the Regional Awards, in addition to the other criteria, the company’s ties and impact on the region will be considered. For the 18th Anniversary Awards, the relevance of the proposal to the categories of these awards, the project’s development stage, and the potential impact will also be evaluated.

15. Who is on the juries?

The different Technical Committees and the juries are formed by members of the innovation ecosystem: investors (venture capital funds and business angels), successful entrepreneurs, prestigious businessmen, previous award winners, representatives from universities and business schools, organising and collaborating entities in the different territories, and representatives of the granting entities.

16. How are the winning companies notified?

Between the months of February and May 2025, summits and regional territorial delivery events are held. The final phase ceremony, where the 18th Anniversary Awards will be presented, will take place on June 3, 2025. All dates will be published on the website of the Start-Up AwardsXXI.

17. How is the cash prize paid out?

The cash prizes are paid out by bank transfer to a current account held by the winning company opened in CaixaBank (Spain) or Banco BPI (Portugal). We inform you that these prizes paid by Caixa EmprendeXXI are considered income from economic activities (not derived from participation in games, contests or raffles) subject to corporation tax.

18. Do the Awards cover other costs?

The organisation covers the travel costs to Barcelona for one representative of each finalist company of the phase Start-Up AwardsXXI Challenges Award called by the sector committees and juries. The costs for the other trips associated with the territorial awards are to be covered by the participants.

19. If I have won another award, does that make my application incompatible?

No, there is no incompatibility with other awards.

20. Who is behind the Awards?

The Awards are backed by CaixaBank and organised by DayOne, the service for tech companies and investors. The company that formally grants the awards is Caixa EmprendedorXXI.

In Spain, the Awards are cogranted with the Empresa Nacional de Innovación (ENISA). In Portugal, the Awards are cogranted with the Banco BPI and the Agência Nacional da Inovaçao through the BFK awards. More than 130 entities from Spain and Portugal also collaborate in the organisation.

21. I have some questions. Who can I contact?

For any query or clarification you can contact us by email at
premio@emprendedorxxi.es or by telephone at 93 409 74 79.

22. And finally… any winning advice?

Some points in the questionnaire are of utmost importance as far as assessment is concerned and approaching the question correctly can make all the difference at the scoring stage. We’ve picked out the most important ones for you:

Market size: this is all about evaluating the accessible market for the company. This means that it is necessary to clearly define both the area where the company operates and the market segment. The basis for the economic valuation of this market should be close to the income model. For example, for an app related to running, the market would not be the number of mobiles in the world but the number of mobiles in Europe (where the company works) x % of the population that regularly does sport x % that would be willing to pay to use an app of this type x the annual cost of the application in euros.
Milestones achieved: this involves demonstrating to the assessors where the company stands and what it has achieved. For example: In terms of the product: if it is in the development stage, if a minimum viable product has been completed, if you are already marketing the product, etc.; in terms of the team: if profiles have joined the company beyond the entrepreneurial team; in terms of sales: if a pilot product has been sold, if the first customers have bought the product, if there are any loyal and repeat customers, if you have reached agreements with partners, distributors, etc.; in terms of innovation: grants/awards obtained that show the level of innovation of the company, if you have reached any partnership agreements with a university, technology centre, strategic supplier, etc.
Main challenges: under this point it is important to show that you know what your company’s main mid-term challenges/goals are, what will be key or influential to your growth and what resources will be essential for fulfilling your business plan. To do this, describe the profiles of the people to be hired and when they are to be incorporated; how much it will cost and how it will be financed, whether financial resources are necessary, how much, when and what for; where you will look for these resources; if it is necessary to make investments, give details explaining the reasons behind the investments and what you think you will achieve from them, etc.
Competitive advantage: show that you know the elements that give you a competitive advantage inside out. Describe what sets you apart from your competitors, what you are better or worse at; how you detected your weak points and why your product/service irons them out; how you plan to maintain these competitive advantages as time passes and your competitors try to incorporate this advantage into their product/service.