The Canarian company Gravitad, a global startup accelerator, announced this Monday that from January 2025 it will open the negotiation round to invest in projects by entrepreneurs from the south of Gran Canaria from its innovation center founded in 2019 in Las Palmas. A process in which it will prioritize operations linked to decarbonization and operational optimization through technological advances in areas such as biotechnology, supply chains and agrotechnology. Gravitad has, among others, the technical support of the director of the University Institute of Applied Microelectronics (IUMA) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Aurelio Vega.
According to Francisco Carballo, CEO of Gravitad, he said that with “brilliant” companies from the region in the areas of sustainability or technology, “it is being demonstrated in the south of Gran Canaria that the Canary Islands’ cross-sector collaborative strengths have a real impact on the economy of the archipelago and beyond.” “We hope that the future-oriented work that will be developed by the start-ups based here will have broader benefits through decarbonisation (supporting the fight against climate change), as well as creating jobs and investments,” he added.
Gravitad currently provides financial support from the Canary Islands to more than 30 highly specialized projects linked to innovation and sustainability. In 2025, the accelerator will continue with this agenda and will support more promising startups from the Canary Islands and connect them with corporate partners from the global Gravitad community in Spain, the US and Latin America, allowing them to test innovative solutions and address business and sustainability challenges. Meanwhile, corporate partners will benefit from working with startups based in the Canary Islands that can address specific business problems and participate in risk-free proofs of concept.
Gravitad will also offer entrepreneurs mentorship and funding, with the aim of co-developing startups that produce innovative solutions in four key areas: operational efficiency, asset optimization and decarbonization, workflow automation, and the future of work. For Carballo, “our mission at Gravitad is to connect the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation of startups with the experience and global impact of corporate leaders.” “This not only allows them to accelerate growth, but also to respond together to global challenges by developing the sustainable solutions of tomorrow,” he explains.
The Canary Islands have quickly become one of the driving forces of investment in startups. They outperform many other European cities in terms of investment and business growth, generating record levels of investment funding in recent years. It is also a respected area within the EU and a leader in sustainability projects, as the goal set by the Canary Islands Government is for the Islands to be an emissions-neutral territory by 2040, 10 years before the limit set by the European Union and the rest of Spain, in 2050.
