More than five years endorsed by the success of a hundred of tech-based startups competing in different parts of the continent
Back in the summer of 2014 Telefonica Open Future (a worldwide iniciative aiming to support startups) landed in southern Spain. It was the beginning of a fruitful partnership with the Regional Government of Andalusia, that has helped to foster entrepreneurship in many ways ever since.
Andalusia is Spain’s most populous and second largest autonomous community in the country. It is divided into 8 provinces and Andalucía Open Future owns crowdworking spaces in four of its main cities (Seville, Malaga, Almeria and Cordoba).
The benefits of starting up a business in Andalusia
The region has a rich culture and a strong identity. Andalusia has a wonderful climate, its average temperature throughout the year is over 16 °C, with plentiful sun all year round. There are ten public universities and one private (Universidad de Loyola) and a high level of educated engineers interested in new technologies and innovation. Cost of living in Spain is one of the lowest in Western Europe, even in the cities and that translates into cheaper accomodation costs and basic food.
One thing that most Andalusian cities have in common is that they are all very walkable cities with excellent public transportation and an abundance of activities and cultural offerings for young professionals, families and entrepreneurs.
Andalucía Open Future helps startups with their go-to-market strategy. Five years have proven our curated program to get your idea from a minimum viable product (almost or just launched product) to traction. That is why we are good at helping startups launch and find their product-market-fit, scale, and grow their companies.
We do not take any equity from the startups and we count on the support of Telefonica and Junta de Andalucia (get access to their networks, platforms, data & knowledge), who are willing to help you target ad connect with potential customers effectively or even give you the chance to make business with them.
We seek to lure startups that are in full development, so we bet on startups whose team already has previous experience, covers the main roles of a company and is fully committed to the project. AOF hubs are designed to accelerate the growth and ensure the success of entrepreneurial projects through a wide range of resources and services that includes as part of its value proposition: work-space, high broadband Wifi, full-equipped meeting rooms, coaching, mentoring, support with PR, networking and forming part of a global network of startups and resources under the Open Future brandname.
The resourced provided by Andalucía Open Future
Our mentors contribute to our resources as tech-experts, course content and startup’s professional development; they are the core of our secret sauce with their guidance and support, helping you personally and professionally from building companies and developing investment strategies to insights on how to run your own firm.
AOF’s business accelerators offer resources, knowledge and support to entrepreneurs to negotiate their first rounds of investment with their networks of investors, business angels, investment funds, etc., since many of the projects —especially those with high growth potential— require significant investments.
Not enough yet? We are looking for international teams that want to move to Andalusia or startups from our region that went away to launch their project and decide to give themselves a try back home. So, spend eight months with us (that’s the length of our program, which is divided into two periods of four months), learning from our ecosystem’s greatest entrepreneurial minds, getting exposed to the tech community, and turn your ideas into sustainable long-term businesses.
Lastly, Andalucía Open Future is not a simple set of co-working spaces in the heart of vibrant Andalusian cities: it is the place for early-stage tech startups looking to learn and grow with other driven entrepreneurs in the same industry (Agtech, Edtech, Travel, Fintech,…) in the same office space. And do not forget that participating is FREE!!
We have an open call starting on september!
Nacho Morales, director of ‘El Cubo’, the hub of Andalucía Open Future in Seville.
