More than 60 representatives of entities, technology companies, startups, entrepreneurs and members of the logistics-port community of the Port of Santander held a meeting yesterday in the hall of the Botín Foundation with technicians from the UTE KPMG/Innsomniase, the incubator/accelerator associated with the Ports 4.0 fund.
At the end of March last year, in a collective endeavor of the Spanish port system, the creation of the "PORTS 4.0" Fund was approved with the aim of promoting entrepreneurship for open innovation in the logistics-port sector.
This fund, initially established for a period of four years, has been endowed with more than EUR 20 million for the financing of innovative, disruptive ideas and projects, which provide solutions, differential capacities and competitive advantages for this sector.
This capital fund has an incubator and accelerator that, managed by the UTE KPMG - Innsomnia, will have a presence in twelve Spanish ports, including Santander; its main purpose being to promote the orientation and articulation of ideas and projects towards the market and facilitate financing channels.
Aware of the importance of this program, the Port Authority of Santander, in collaboration with the Directorate of Innovation, Technological Development and Industrial Entrepreneurship of the Government of Cantabria, SODERCAN and the support of CISE, has been working on the creation of an "ecosystem" that, having the port and its logistics-port community as a focus, and the aforementioned fund as a driving tool , generate and lead to innovative thinking. Ideas and projects, scalable and replicable to the Spanish port logistics sector, aimed at increasing its productivity, competitiveness and sustainability.
Continuing the actions that have been developed to promote, promote and mobilize the innovative potential of the "ecosystem", yesterday afternoon, in the Hall of Acts of Fundación Botín, a briefing was held in which Silvia Moreno, technician of the incubator and accelerator of "PORTS 4.0", after presenting the main characteristics of the aforementioned fund , focused its intervention on the explanation of the regulatory bases of the program and the call, as well as on the presentation of the advisory and mentoring plan to be offered to companies, startups, entrepreneurs, etc., who decide to participate in this program; to then answer the doubts and questions of more than half a hundred representatives of entities, technology companies, startups, entrepreneurs and members of the logistics-port community of the Port of Santander who attended the event.
The session also featured interventions by Cristina López Arias, director of the Santander Port Authority; Jorge Muyo López, Director General of Innovation, Technological Development and Industrial Entrepreneurship of the Government of Cantabria; and Federico Gutiérrez-Solana, director of CISE (Santander Emprendimiento International Center) who, among other issues, highlighted the potential of Cantabria as a logistical enclave and the opportunity it entails for the Community, through the design and implementation of a joint strategy, to promote the creation of an ecosystem that promotes creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship around this sector.