What are we looking for

We look for start-ups that can help us innovate in vehicle cleaning solutions. Your solution will produce a relevant change or improvement in the way we understand cleaning vehicles. The use of different technologies such as robotics, AI, AV, Machine Learning, AGV, Chemicals, or many others will give answer to the future of mobility creating new ways for vacuuming, disinfecting and/or cleaning all kind of complex surfaces.

Your start-up stage

Some of the start-ups might have already a product or even sales and traction, some have just a concept or prototype, and the majority are somewhere in the middle. We concentrate on solutions, not on start-up stage. Ideally we look for well balanced teams, with international spirit, willing to achieve their goals and scale their solutions.

Timeframe

Submission period: September 1st, 2019 – November 30th, 2019
Selection Day: January 16th, 2020
Acceleration Program: February 1st, 2020 – May 31st, 2020

What do we offer

Once the Submission Period is finished, the preselected start-ups will be invited to participate in the Selection Day that will take place in our Headquarters in L’Alcúdia (Valencia, Spain), to pitch your ideas and present your solutions. The selected companies will be invited to participate in an acceleration program with Istobal.
The Acceleration Program will take 17 weeks and is designed to give the start-ups the best opportunity to develop a Proof Of Concept (POC). To achieve it, we put at your disposal up to 10.000€ per team to fund the process of develop, adapt, validate and implement your POC.
Potentially, we will carry on implementing and scaling your concept, for which we could become your customer and help you to grow your product offerings
You can choose to stay at our installations, for which you will have free working space, access to our Innovation Lab, our prototype and manufacturing workshops and our testing area, as well as access to our R&D and Manufacturing experts.
There will be personalized mentoring sessions with internal and external renowned subject matter experts, workshops and special sessions

Selection Process

Selection Process is divided in two phases.

• In the Preselection Phase any team can fill-in the questionnaire. Questionnaires must be filled in English and submitted before November 30th, 2019. Link to the questionnaire can be found here link. Please, note this questionnaire and the information given thru it is the only source of information we have from your start-up and your project, so please fill it in carefully, only with information that is relevant for the project and best describes it. No Business Plan needed. Once submission period is finished, we will analyze all submissions and select ten projects, those that best suit the requirements, and move them forward to the next phase.
• The Second Phase will take place in our Headquarters in L’Alcúdia (Valencia, Spain). Preselected companies will pitch their ideas and present their solutions, prototypes and/or concepts to the Istobal Management Team and external experts. It is required that presentations be face-to-face. We can help you with the travel costs. Exceptionally, a team could present on-line if it is not feasible to come to Istobal. Istobal will analyze these exceptions and communicate their decision to the team.

Selected companies will receive a document with the conditions of the program to be signed prior to the Selection Day for you to revise and sign by all partners. But don’t worry, we understand ideas are yours. Istobal might show interest in taking a percentage in equity, or being your customer or collaborate in many different forms but this is something that will be analyzed and discussed case by case if necessary.
Questions? Please have a look to our FAQs section or email us at innovation@istobal.com