BBVA and 500 Global create a platform to identify disruptive and sustainable startups and technologies for financial services
BBVA and 500 Global have signed an agreement for 500 Global to develop an Intelligence Platform that would support BBVA’s ability to identify new startups, technologies and emerging trends with the potential to impact the future of the most innovative industries, and by extension, the finance sector. The new BBVA-500 Intelligence Platform will attempt to promote new collaborations and pilot projects between startups and the bank.
“With the BBVA-500 Intelligence Platform, we will have a front-row seat to the launch of new companies and disruptive trends in priority areas of BBVA’s strategy, such as sustainability. Innovation is needed now more than ever before to accelerate the transition to decarbonization and combat climate change,” explained Javier Rodríguez Soler, Global Head of Sustainability of BBVA, during the Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas where this new alliance was announced.
BBVA is therefore reinforcing its open innovation strategy thanks to the alliance with 500 Global, a global venture capital firm with more than 2,500 startups across all 500 Global funds, with companies from Silicon Valley, Asia, MENA, Europe and Latin America.
Through the new platform, 500 Global will analyze the technologies, business models and most innovative trends emerging on a global level in specific areas, bringing insights from its vast network of portfolio companies and industry contacts to BBVA.
Javier Rodríguez Soler, Global Head of Sustainability of BBVA, during the Money 2020 conference in Las Vegas. - Money 20/20
“500 Global is the ideal partner to attain this objective due to its global scope, its deep knowledge of the innovation ecosystem and its experience in startup programs with corporate partners,” says Robert Altes, Head of American Portfolio at BBVA.
“This decade is shaping up to be a special era led by organizations that can quickly adapt to a world that is data oriented, decarbonizing and decentralizing, and one that is creating new inclusive opportunities that are aligned with BBVA’s values,” said Vijay Rajendran, Head of Corporate Growth at 500 Global.
The BBVA-500 Intelligence Platform is now fully operational and has already begun its research in different countries.