6 June 2016
Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness, Deusto Business Alumni, Deusto Alumni, Deusto Entrepreneurship Centre and Deustotech create a support network for entrepreneurial initiatives.
Deusto University has gone a step further in its promotion of entrepreneurship via a collaboration agreement between different agencies that work in this field, with the aim of facilitating the connection between investors and entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial initiatives that emerge in the sphere of Deusto Business Alumni, Deusto Alumni, Deusto Entrepreneurship Centre and Deustotech will be able to access Orkestra’s Crecer+ business angels network. Both Alumni organisations provide service to almost 10,000 former students of Deusto University.
One of the major challenges for entrepreneurs is the quest for suitable funding in order to develop their projects. Orkestra, via its Crecer+ initiative, has created an area of communication between investors and entrepreneurs developing a double function: on the one hand, accompanying entrepreneurs in their search for funding, and on the other, evaluating and presenting projects to investors seeking projects in which to participate. Crecer+ brings together over 40 investment groups from the Basque Country in a global network (corporate investors, individuals, family offices…) and promotes the co-financing of projects between the different members of the network.
Crecer + and Deusto Business Alumni have been promoting these co-financing projects for four years via DeustoInvest, which supports and encourages any initiatives that arise through the investment capacity of its members, with a view to financing projects presented by the Crecer + network.
This agreement extends the existing collaboration agreement between Orkestra and Deusto Business Alumni. Thus, the members of Deusto Business Alumni (DBA) or Deusto Alumni (DA) with entrepreneurial projects in need of funding will be able to access the Crecer+ business angels network. Another significant aspect of the agreement is that it increases the number of Alumni interested in investing in entrepreneurial projects who can accesss a multisectorial network of investors with experience in setting up operations of this nature. In this way, both Alumni organisations, with a combined total of 9,741 members, reinforce the services offered to their members with favourable conditions.
In the case of Deustotech, the agreement will assist those technology-based innovative projects requiring the network’s support to obtain the latter directly or via other entities in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Furthermore, Deustotech can promote collaboration initiatives between different projects in the context of its research activity, mainly in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
Deusto Entrepreneurship Centre, meanwhile, which is the centre devoted to promoting innovative entrepreneurship at Deusto University, will offer its knowledge of the business angels network in order to improve understanding and application of the factors that facilitate investment processes, and, where appropriate, will accompany entrepreneurs on their business venture.
The agreement consolidates and reinforces the efforts being made by Deusto to co-ordinate the different organisations that, from the University, participate in such an important field of work as that related to entrepreneurship, project funding and the search for investors.
