For the fifth consecutive year, the MONDRAGON Promotion Center, the corporate platform for promoting new businesses and entrepreneurship, participated as a Key Player and Partner in the 8th edition of the international event organized in Salamanca from September 5 to 7.

At the national level, it is among the three best events in this field, and in recent years it has also stood out in the ecosystem of South American countries, making annual visits to five of its countries. In this year's edition, Mondragon University was also present, thanks to the Mondragon Team Academy, the local entrepreneurship unit. This includes the LEINN degree, and the following startups have presented various initiatives to replace it: Smallops, Vidext and The Good Goal, together with the Bibagu and La Rioja projects. Together with the Leinner participants, the university presented both the mentioned projects and several others in the entrepreneurship network at its stand. The MTA members were satisfied with the event.

With more than 170 startups from various sectors, more than 100 investors and more than Corporations, 2,500 visitors, 80 roundtables and more than 1,100 meetings, Startup Olé has become an important event for MONDRAGON, precisely in view of the positioning it wants to achieve as an entrepreneurial Corporation. In fact, Startup Olé has become a cutting-edge event in various fields, bringing together innovative projects with a technological base, enabling quality connections and disseminating technological trends. Finally, it becomes an exceptional context for the MONDRAGON Promotion Center to continue working on the promotion of the identification of projects and investments that can coincide with the interests of the group's cooperatives.

Open innovation

Along these lines, we have participated in presentations on the financing and collaboration needs of more than 100 startups, and have also met with 30. At the same time, Joseba Sagastigordia, director of the MONDRAGON Promotion Center, participated in the panel discussion organized under the title 'Open Innovation Opportunities in Companies and Corporations'. Representatives of other Corporations, such as Renfe, Once Foundation, Cinfa, Acciona and the RTVE Corporation (Innova project) have joined the panel. There, they shared their experiences in the field of open innovation, valuing corporate investment in the structuring of the relationship that can be built with startups.

Mondragon Team Academy

The Mondragon Team Academy (MTA) is an international community in which more than 2,500 entrepreneurs participate, creating a global network of laboratories for social innovation.

What do they do

• Communities of entrepreneurs: Laboratories are collaborative ecosystems. It promotes collaboration between professionals, group entrepreneurs, companies and startups to develop proposals that will have a positive impact on society. They are also spaces to share and overcome the obstacles we encounter on a daily basis.
• Learning for tomorrow: Its programs break with everything known so far, because we follow the principle of "learning by doing and creating" at MTA. They are designed to prepare courageous people who will be able to face the challenges we face now and in the future as a team.
• Ideas turned into reality: at MTA, group entrepreneurs are supported and stimulated to turn their projects into business reality.
• Closer to each other: They collaborate with companies and organizations to respond to the challenges they face through research, innovation and transformation projects.

Its goal is to create a community of entrepreneurial groups who want to have a local and global impact, to create a radical and positive impact together.