The Universidad Europea del Atlántico (European University of the Atlantic, UNEATLANTICO) hosted a meeting with the Board of Trustees of the Fundación Innovación y Desarrollo (Innovation and Development Foundation, FIDBAN) in which Víctor Gijón, outgoing director, has officially left his position, preparing to undertake a new project to support startups while his successor, Diego Lainz, professor at UNEATLANTICO and former executive of Liberbank, takes the reins of the Foundation.
The person in charge of leading the session was Juan Carlos Gutiérrez Díaz-Velarde, who attended telematically as chairman in this session and on behalf of the Cantabria Industrial Research and Technology Center Foundation. Also present were Rubén Calderón Iglesias, rector of UNEATLANTICO and secretary of FIDBAN; Santos Gracia Villar, president of the Iberoamerican University Foundation (FUNIBER), and board member; Ángel Pedraja Terán, representative of the Regional Development Society of Cantabria (Sociedad de Desarrollo Regional de Cantabria, SODERCAN) and board member; Pedro Pérez Noriega, representative of the Hon. Torrelavega City Council and board member; and as guest, Isabel Gómez-Barreda García, Councilwoman of Employment, Entrepreneurship, and Business Development.
Several topics were discussed on the agenda, including a report on the activities carried out by FIDBAN from September 1st, 2022, to August 31st, 2023. In addition, the annual accounts for the year were unanimously approved by the attendees.
In addition, the application of the profit for September 1st, 2022, to August 31st, 2023 was unanimously approved. The board agreed to allocate resources to foundational purposes throughout the year in the form of expenses and investments directly associated with the activities carried out in fulfillment of its purposes.
For his part, Santos Gracia Villar, reported on the internationalization plan through the FUNIBER network and the reinforcement of FIDBAN in relations with business entities and organizations, especially the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, CEOE-Cepyme and Chambers of Commerce in Cantabria, including an upcoming meeting with José Luis Bonet, president of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Freixenet. Additionally, the aim is to give a boost to the communication and visibility of projects, so that they reach all potential investor networks with greater quality and impact. Greater emphasis will also be placed on projects with CEOE-Cepyme and the Spanish Association Business Angels Networks (AEBAN).
Transfer of management
The management of FIDBAN, established by UNEATLANTICO, FUNIBER, Sodercan-Government of Cantabria, and CITICAN, with the prominent participation of the city councils of Santander and Torrelavega, as well as the CEOE-CEPYME, is now in the hands of Diego Lainz, who has thanked the members of the board for their trust in the execution of the tasks to be developed.
In a farewell letter to FIDBAN’s trustees, Gijón expressed his gratitude for the “organizational and personal support of the project’s founding institutions”. After six years of leadership from the Foundation’s first steps, Gijón considered that the time had come to “step aside” after having achieved the proposed objectives.
During his mandate, FIDBAN has carried out several actions in favor of entrepreneurship and scaling of new companies. Worth noting are the 19 investor rounds held in Cantabria, two in El Salvador and one each in Guatemala and Mexico. In addition, a total of 70 projects have gone through these investment rounds.
Gijón pointed out that nearly 40% of the companies that came to FIDBAN in search of financing are still active today. These include Bound4blue, Regfilter, EolasPrint, Cifra Educación, Uktena, Binarybox, AirwayShield, Banbu, Las Hermanísimas, OGR Optimun, and Neptune Energy.