One of the great pending issues of the research system is to ensure that everything developed in laboratories reaches the market. Scientific production is excellent, but its discoveries often fall by the wayside, without finding a way for industry to adopt them. The Collider, a program of the Mobile World Capital (MWCapital), focuses on this point, bringing scientists together with entrepreneurs so that the business side is not a problem.
Born in 2017, the initiative has constituted a total of 18 startups, between three and five per edition, and already has six under its belt. The companies have achieved a valuation of 20 million euros and have raised more than six million euros. Likewise, all of them together have consolidated a workforce of about 100 employees. Of all the companies that have been constituted over these years with The Collider, only two have fallen by the wayside.
The MWCapital program specializes in accelerating and incubating deep tech emerging companies. Some of these companies are Ephion Health, a digital platform that allows monitoring the evolution of patients with diseases affecting mobility; Exheus, capable of analyzing the 22,000 genes in the body using artificial intelligence from a small blood sample, and AllRead, specialized in detecting, reading, and digitizing any supply chain. AllRead has recently been chosen as one of the ten most innovative companies in Catalonia.
The Collider is immersed in its seventh edition. According to Pol Hortal, head of Corporate Relations for the program, they received more than 150 project proposals that wanted to participate, with an increasing weight of health and sustainability. In a first phase, which started in March, they selected 15 technologies. They were presented to the industry to assess both whether they were mature enough and whether there was a demand for them.
Seven passed the sieve, and they will be the ones to start the last phase of the program in September. This last part has the grace that scientific teams who have had an idea that has caught the market's attention join with entrepreneurs who will end up leading the future company. Which, many times, is not easy. For this reason, they are helped with coaches to redirect differences and find a balance that makes collaboration possible. It should be noted that scientists usually continue with their academic careers and do not dedicate themselves solely to the company, while entrepreneurs do become focused on the new project.
Among the final initiatives of this edition, Hortal details, there is one that has devised an irrigation control for fields that allows saving water and another that has created a medical device to resuscitate people in cardiac arrest that they say is more efficient than current ones. A sensor to detect nitrogen also participates, which can be used for electric car battery controls and on farms, and an odor control mechanism that feeds on the impressions of people who are nearby and is being tested at the Tarragona Petrochemical Complex.
Bringing scientists together with entrepreneurs to develop a project is not always easy, so they are helped with coaches to redirect differences and find a balance that makes collaboration possible.This last project is proof of one of The Collider's characteristics. According to Hortal, teams that do not pass the first phase do not mean that they have technology that is not valid. Many times it has to be rethought, like the odor control mechanism, which was presented two editions ago and failed to pass the first phase, but now it has.
Once the final phase is over, the seven projects of this edition will face the ultimate test: investors. In December, they will present their proposals to them and, if they convince them, they will receive funding. Not all of them always succeed. MWCapital will allocate a maximum of 100,000 euros for each, depending on the valuation they receive. Once the program is finished, they will become part of the companies established with The Collider, which follows them during the first years so that they can obtain more financing channels and develop. One of the ways to do this is by participating in events such as 4 Years From Now (4YFN), the fair for startups of the Mobile World Congress (MWC).