Innovation, creativity and financial accuracy are compatible. LABORAL Kutxa and BerriUp have joined forces to boost the Basque startup ecosystem.
Financing is one of the main challenges facing new innovative companies; in fact, the needs of companies and the schemes of banking institutions often do not match.

The agreement between the Basque credit cooperative and the accelerator of BerriUp companies looks to the future. Both sides will prioritize flexibility, and plan to expand lines of cooperation as work progresses. Óscar Muguerza, Director of Business Development at LABORAL Kutxa, expressed his satisfaction with the protocol signing ceremony in December last year: "This agreement reaffirms our commitment to innovation and the hidden talent in our business network". BerriUpe director Patricia Casado emphasized that "with the contribution of LABORAL Kutxa, startups will be able to grow faster and reach the market with better forecasts".

Through the agreement, BerriUpen startups will have priority in accessing all the tools that LABORAL Kutxa focuses on entrepreneurship, including an expert team, business model, tax or internationalization advice, product catalog and tailor-made services.
In the area of ​​financing, a special line for financing innovation -InnovFin- will be made available to startups. It will offer 3-year credit accounts and 10-year loans ranging from 25,000 euros to 7.5 million euros, without the need for additional guarantees.

BerriUpe also collaborates with LABORAL Kutxa's strategy, as the financial institution will be able to identify and approach talent and innovation in areas that are very important for banking digitalisation, such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and blockchain.

Call for the 10th News Program
The 10th BerriUpen call to attract new projects has been running since last November. The aim is to bring together innovative initiatives for the acceleration program, from any business sector or field of action. According to the agreement, the BerriUp program will have the support of LABORAL Kutxa in all phases. The panel of experts will evaluate all the proposals received by 19 January. The names of the winners would then be announced at a public event.

The selected projects will have the opportunity to start a program that will provide personalized support for four months, and will receive an endowment of 50,000 euros in exchange for a 10% stake in the company. The selected projects will be worked on at the BerriUpen coworking site for 16 weeks to validate the business model. In addition, the selected entrepreneurs will have a team of expert mentors by their side and will receive personalized support from them throughout the process.

BerriUp is the private accelerator of the first companies in the Basque Country. Founded in 2015 and has helped create more than 80 jobs, it has promoted 23 companies and six companies are located at its headquarters in the Zuatzu business park. The acceleration program is aimed at business projects that are in the early stages of development and have the potential to grow.

More information: www.berriup.com