On the 15th of September, the eight Navarre start-ups that will go to the national stage were introduced. The city of Córdoba will host the final gala on November 4, where the 19 most innovative companies in the country will be chosen.

This initiative aims to identify, recognize and support innovative entrepreneurship and business growth in the country from the public sector. The initiative is promoted by the Spanish Association of Regional Development Agencies (ADR Forum) and the National Innovation Company (ENISA), of which CEIN and Sodena are members.

Although Madrid and Andalusia were the communities with the most business candidates on the list, Navarre's participation shows the strength of its entrepreneurship ecosystem, as well as its great influence on the economic development of this Autonomous Community.

Selection process

An expert jury was responsible for choosing the 19 winners - one from each autonomous community/city - and thus became ambassadors of the Spain Up Nation brand, promoted by ENISA, to position Spain as a global benchmark in innovative entrepreneurship.

However, all candidates first had to pass a regional phase and then another national phase, where the entrepreneurial team's competence and leadership criteria, the degree of innovation and scalability potential of the business model, and the ability to internationalize were taken into account. Likewise, the company's viability and economic-financial forecast and social impact were assessed, according to the contribution made to the HGEs.

From all of them, 152 startups were selected to compete in the national stage.
The Top101 companies that manage to reach this final stage will receive the Top101 Spain Up Nation Seal as a recognition of the most innovative companies with the greatest impact on the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem, they will receive a networking agenda and B2B sessions with investors and pitch deck training, training tailored to the company. Along with this, they will benefit from the direct acceptance of the level of innovation of the startup certificate, through the accreditation of the recognition.

Total number of candidates

Madrid and Andalusia are at the top of the application ranking, with 83 and 73 startups respectively. The distribution of candidates was also as follows: Aragon, 13; Canary Islands, 23; Cantabria, 10; Castilla-Mancha, 18; Castile and Leon, 18; Catalonia, 52; Navarre Provincial Community, 17; Community of Valencia, 58; Extremadura, 14; Galicia, 15; Balearic Islands, 9; Rioja, 13; Basque Country, 29; Principality of Asturias, 15; Region of Murcia, 14; Ceuta, 3; and Melilla, 2.

Program objective, program description and target audience

The Spanish Association of Regional Development Agencies (ADR Forum) is an organization that brings together public institutions dedicated to promoting cooperation between the public administration institutions of the autonomous communities, to promote economic development and regional development and to support small and medium enterprises. Its main objective is to help improve and recognize development agencies and management centers as tools of their respective governments to develop policies to support businesses.

ENISA, Empresa Nacional de Innovación, SA, is a public capital entity created in 1982, attached to the Ministry of Industry and Tourism (MINTUR), through the General Directorate of Industrial Strategy and Small and Medium Enterprises, and the majority of the shareholders is the General Directorate of State Heritage (DGPE). The social purpose of the entity is to develop and promote the entrepreneurship and transformational innovation of projects and companies (SMEs), in new, more competitive, more innovative, more sustainable, more exportable and more resilient production, distribution and consumption models.

The Spain Up Nation (SUN) brand is one of the priority measures of the Spanish Entrepreneurial Nation Strategy (ENE); The initiative was assigned to ENISA. The Spain Up Nation brand aims to make Spain a more innovative country that will create more and better jobs and leave no one behind, making innovative entrepreneurship the icebreaker of a new economic model.

The two entities, aware of the innovative business growth of the State of Spain and the need to recognize it from the public sector, call for the first edition of TOP101 Spain up Nation-Recognitions of Entrepreneurship with Impact in Spain 2024.

These recognitions aim to highlight the best newly created business projects, as well as to promote the relationship between entrepreneurs, companies and the different Administrations of the region, gathered in the ADR Forum and the General Administration of the State headed by ENISA.

In line with Spain's economic promotion policies, companies that have a social, economic and/or environmental impact and have greater growth potential are to be recognized, supported and given visibility; innovative companies, newly created and consolidated up to 5 yearswhich contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that add value to society.