News Blog

ESADE and BBVA award ten social entrepreneur companies with specialised training

The pannel of judges: Antoni Ballabriga, Alfred Vernis, Luisa Alemany, Maite Arango, Sabina Lobato, Manuel Castro, Ignasi Carreras, Francisco Esteve, María Calvo and Javier Garilleti. Pamela Hartigan was not present but voted by teleconference.

Having received over 130 applications, Spanish multinational bank BBVA and ESADE business school have chosen the 10 most promising social start-ups from across Spain who will receive specialist training in ESADE and advice from BBVA’s mentors. This move forms the backbone of a new form of alliance between ESADE and BBVA known as the Momentum Project, aimed at supporting the most promising social entrepreneurs helping them to consolidate, grow and expand the impact of their businesses.

The winning social entrepreneurs hail from many different sectors including catering, pharmaceuticals, homecare, agriculture, textile and real estate. Despite this diversity, they are unified by a mission to integrate various socially disadvantaged groups of people into the workforce: from those with physical or mental disabilities, or those who did not have the training opportunities many of us have today, to others at risk from exclusion.

The representatives of each of the winning projects will travel to ESADE’s San Cugat (Barcelona) campus next month where they will undertake five days of specifically designed training during which they will work on their business development plans, focusing specifically on strategy design, financing and implementation. The classes, lead by ESADE’s professors, will be based on workshops, company visits, exchange of information and best-practices. Following the intensive week of classes, the participants will put together their development plans over a period of ten weeks before presenting them in front of potential financers on BBVA’s Madrid campus at their “Social Investment Day”.

The jury, comprised of leading experts from Oxford University’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (Pamela Hartigan), Price Waterhouse Coopers(Javier Garilleti), BBVA(Manuel Castro, Antoni Ballabriga and Francisco José Esteve) ESADE’s Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institutes (Alfred Vernis, Ignasi Carreras and Luisa Alemany), Grupo VIPS (Maite Arango) and Fundación Once (Sabina Lobato), chose the winners based on their experience, relevant social impact, innovative solutions and potential to scale up their operations and have a greater influence on society. While the project is currently focused on Spanish social entrepreneurs, future plans include editions focused on other regions.

The social entrepreneurs

Catering Solidario: Founded in Seville in 2007, this company assists in the integration of women who have suffered abuse into the workplace, through employment in catering and hospitality, for which free trade and ecological sources are also used.

DAU: With almost 20 years of experience in Catalonia, DAU was the first Spanish Special Employment Centre to gain the legal authorisation as a manufacturing pharmaceutical laboratory and promotes the inclusion and autonomy of people suffering from severe mental disabilities.

Gan Vallès Assistencial: Launched in 2006 in Barcelona to provide care for the dependent, assuring quality and trust, creating work for women over 50 with little or no formal education.

Hornos Lamastelle: A Galician company founded in 1993 whose mission is the integration of the disabled into the workplace, through the manufacture and sale of pastry products throughout Spain.

La Tavella: An association created in 2007 in Barcelona which promotes the employment of people with mental disabilities or severe mental illness, through activities related to agriculture and ecological farming.

Moltacte: Founded in Catalonia in 2006, this company promotes the integration of people with sever mental illness into the textile industry. It also has a socially sustainable purchasing policy based on the generation of stable, high-quality employment for people with mental illnesses.

Naturix: Company launched in 2006 with headquarters in Guadalajara and Madrid, focused on the production, transformation and distribution of ecological agricultural products, and management committed to environmental sustainability.

Roba Amiga: A Catalan cooperative, created in 2006 with the bringing together of 5 organizations providing work for those at risk from exclusion into the workplace, through the collection of used clothes and other textiles for reuse and recycling.

Sostre Civic: Created in Barcelona in 2004, to offer good homes to all segments of the population, avoiding families becoming over indebted, through environmentally sustainable and economically accessible constructions.

Teixidors: Founded in 1983 in Barcelona focused on the creation of handmade textiles, made by disabled crafts people, with the aim of helping them integrate into society, while also preserving Catalan textile traditions.

Comments are closed.