Spanish startups received a total investment volume of 659.4 million euros in 1,527 investments in 2015, up 83% from 2014.

BBVA CEO Carlos Torres Vila explained the Group’s plans to support the fintech industry and promote innovation – two pillars of BBVA’s ambitious transformation process. In his address during this first edition of Money 20/20 Europe - the most important fintech event in the world - in Copenhagen, Carlos Torres Vila affirmed that “BBVA will play an even more prominent role in the innovation ecosystem thanks to our internal initiatives, strategic alliances with fintech players and the use of our platform, by building open APIs, as key drivers of growth.”

Avant is an online credit platform capable of offering loans in less time than a traditional bank. This startup has increased from 2 employees to 30 since 2012.

Last Wednesday March 16 the BBVA Innovation Center launched "Design Wednesdays", a series of events scheduled for the third Wednesday of every month that will examine the role played by design. "Service Design and Business Transformation" was the topic that started the ball rolling.

Academic and research centers have no other way but to innovate, reinvent themselves and bring new ideas to change the way they work. This is how it is considered by the master Juan Manuel Romero Ortega, who has headed the Coordination of Innovation and Development of the National Autonomous University of Mexico since August 2013. Romero is one of the 33 innovators in the ebook Hablan los protagonistas (The key players speak).

The United States-Mexico Foundation for Science (FUMEC), through its Microsystems program, and Semtech Corporation — supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors — presented one of the most important global proposals related to the Internet of Things (IoT) known as LoRa (Long Range), as well as an overview of business opportunities to accelerate the penetration of IoT in Mexico.

One night, the Swede Robert Ilijason was trying to feed his baby. The last jar of baby food left at home fell on the floor and broke, leaving Ilijason with no food for his baby, since all the supermarkets were closed. After driving for more than 20 minutes to find what he was looking for, Ilijason had an idea which incredibly enough no one had thought about before.

The transparency report on the Fiscal Responsibility of Companies in the Ibex 35 compiled by Fundación Compromiso y Transparencia has awarded BBVA second place in the ranking of companies that best inform on their fiscal responsibility. This excellent result is thanks to the bank’s efforts to comply with the transparency indicators and improve their information in this area.

Proximus is a startup from the Business Incubator of the Science Park of the University Carlos III of Madrid, which provides valuable information to supermarkets, from promotions that attract customers to the route followed inside the store and what products they stop at.