This is the first initiative of the I’MNOVATION Platform launched by ACCIONA outside Europe, which integrates the company’s lines of innovation with disruptive technologies developed by Startups and technology partners in Chile. The selected Startups will develop their pilot projects with ACCIONA and its partners, in a real environment where technology and viability of the solutions can be validated.

As part of its innovation strategy, ACCIONA has launched the I’MNOVATION #Startups Program in Chile. Through this initiative, ACCIONA will identify and promote projects that will be developed with new technologies applicable to Sustainable Mining, Smart Mobility and Smart Cities.

For this purpose, ACCIONA will present a series of challenges through the online platform, so that interested Startups can present their solutions and explain how they can be useful to impact the future of Chilean cities, mobility and mining. These areas of opportunity have been identified by ACCIONA as sectors with significant growth in terms of digital transformation and sustainability.

ACCIONA will select and finance the most outstanding proposals that will form part of the initiative. During this phase and in collaboration with Company experts, the Startups will have the opportunity to work, for nearly 3 months, on the development of pilots that demonstrate the viability of their solutions on a real scale. Once this period is over, heads of the different business units will evaluate the possibility of signing commercial or strategic agreements with Startups at a local or international level.

In the field of sustainable mining, ACCIONA will have as partners mining companies that will share their challenges and provide startups with a suitable environment for the development of pilots to respond to their challenges.

“ We believe that through the I’MNOVATION #Startups Program, ACCIONA can boost Chile’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in order to contribute to the adaptation that cities and industries of the future will require, becoming a promoter of innovation in the country” said Arantza Ezpeleta, General Manager of Innovation and Technology at ACCIONA.

About I’MNOVATION #Startups

The Company launched the first edition of the Open Innovation Program I’MNOVATION #Startups in Spain in 2017. Since then, more than 300 Startups from all over the world have presented technological solutions to respond to the challenges launched by the company through different business units (Construction, Energy, Service, Water, Industrial and Corporate).

In two years, more than 20 Startups have been selected to develop pilot Projects jointly with ACCIONA teams, the results of which were presented to the management teams of the company’s different business areas. Of those selected, two out of three have signed agreements with a business unit.

In 2018, ACCIONA’s Open Innovation Program was recognized by the European Comission as one of the most innovative at a corporate level with the Open Innovation Innovative Approach Award. Thus, the I’MNOVATION Startups Program was awarded as one of the most innovative approaches to establish collaboration agreements with Startups in Europe.

ACCIONA’s ongoing commitment to innovation, with an innovation intensity ratio of 3% over sales in 2018, has positioned it in recent years among the leading companies in terms of innovation: The 2018 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard places ACCIONA as the 6th Spanish company and the 150th in Europe to make the most effort in terms of R&D figures. Moreover, and Strategy’s 2018 Global Innovation 1000 report& places ACCIONA in 5th position among the seven Spanish companies in the ranking.