La Lonja de la Innovación, protagonist of a new cycle of 'La mirada económica' on successful startups

Yesterday, a new event in the "La mirada económica" cycle, organized by Huelva24.com and Vocento, took place under the title "Pioneers. This is what successful startups born in Huelva are like," featuring La Lonja de la Innovación as the protagonist.

Rocío Díaz, director of La Lonja de la Innovación, was one of the speakers in the event, with representatives from two startups accelerated at La Lonja: Chío Díez, COO of Nexterra Agrotech and one of our mentors, and Juan Luis Mejías, CTO of Kuviotech. Eric Sánchez, mentor at La Lonja de la Innovación and CEO of Reental was also one of the participants.

They all agreed that it is necessary to take risks and be brave if you have an entrepreneurial dream. They also emphasized the importance of investing in Huelva, since there is a great deal of talent there that is sometimes wasted due to a fear of failure and a lack of opportunities in their hometown, leading them to end up starting businesses outside the province.

Eric Sánchez is one of the examples of how from Huelva is possible to start a business. Our mentor founded Reental a few years ago, a real estate investment platform with a crowdfunding model. He says that he had the opportunity to start this entrepreneurial adventure in Madrid, but he decided to do it from Huelva, and now highlights that they are “the second largest company in the world of its sector and the largest in Spain. From Huelva a huge opportunity has been created”. After sharing his success story, he has encouraged young people to bet on Huelva and added that “ an ecosystem must be created so that young people see that they can have opportunities here.” 

Chío Díez, Operational Director of Nexterra Agrotech, a startup accelerated at La Lonja de la Innovación that provides specialized chitosan solutions for sustainable agriculture, was the next speaker. “We want Spain’s first chitosan plant to be located in Huelva. There are only two more in Europe, and we would like it to be here so that it can become a benchmark for biosustainable initiatives,” Chío stated. In addition, she highlighted the support received from the very beginning from the Huelva Port Authority and La Lonja de la Innovación: “They opened up a new paradigm for us. They told us that the project had great potential and helped us find sponsors. They completely changed the trajectory of our initiative by providing us with many resources.”

 She didn’t want to end her speech without, just like Eric, encouraging young people to start businesses in Huelva. “La Lonja has created a good mix of industry and technology, and let’s see if we can build a strong local base so that young people see they don’t have to leave and that they have a place here to learn and develop their ideas and talent.”

For its part, Kuviotech is a startup specialized in the IoT sector for sustainability and efficiency projects that also joined La Lonja de la Innovación to accelerate its project. Its representative was Juan Luis Mejías, the company's chief technology officer, who highlighted how the Port of Huelva gave them synergy and offered to carry out pilot projects. He also stressed that "in Andalusia there are more and more opportunities, and Huelva has them simply due to the Port, which is a huge focus and allows for many synergies."

Finally, there was the intervention of Rocío Díaz, director of La Lonja de la Innovación. "The Port seeks solutions for large and small companies, and that is why it created La Lonja. We started three years ago and have carried out some 1,200 activities with 4,000 attendees. In addition, we have made the leap to internationalization and work with South America or Singapore," she highlighted regarding the initiative. Rocío also did not want to end without making an appeal to young entrepreneurs to bet on Huelva: "This takes time, and people need to believe in it, which I think is one of the things we lack in Huelva."

And, without a doubt, these three success stories are clear proof that it is possible to start a business in Huelva. For this reason, at La Lonja de la Innovación we promote entrepreneurship and the digital transformation of the port sector, with the aim of promoting socioeconomic development through collaboration between companies, institutions, and entrepreneurs.