Fundtruck, putting the spotlight on innovation

It’s a first: the Fundtruck competition from Sowefund came to the Basque Country on Wednesday 9 September, to the technology park at Anglet. The aim was to highlight our area’s commitment to innovation and to support businesses making an impact. This recognition was warmly welcomed by Sylvie Durruty, Vice-President of the Communauté d'Agglomération Pays Basque responsible for the Economy and Innovation: “We are proud to have been identified as an innovative area. Our commitment is ongoing with the ninth year of the Innovation Workshops. Our call for projects will this year once again offer 150,000 euros in grants to new businesses.”

This provides considerable support for an ecosystem that is really buzzing, as shown by the excellent level of the five Basque start-ups that took part in Fundtruck: Wave Bumper, e-taranis, Sodium Cycles, BioclimaKIT and Solikend. These young businesses were independently selected by Sowefund analysts and invited to pitch their projects to a panel of local investors and experts; they are all committed to the ecological transition or the solidarity economy and their innovations stood out because of the meaning and usefulness they had invested them with. That was in addition to the robustness of their business models. Because make no mistake, beneath the very friendly atmosphere of the event, the panel conducted a thorough and uncompromising examination of the strategic and economic data of the projects presented.

Sodium Cycles, a great winner and flag-bearer

The voting revealed that Sodium Cycle were the winners of the Basque stage of the competition. Xubaka, their unique model of electric motorbike made in France, has therefore won again, having also won the Innovation Workshops 2020. “I am delighted at the visibility offered by a competition at national level,” said Benoit Marty, the founder, who will take part in the regional final of Fundtruck in Bordeaux. It’s a new stage in a faultless trajectory, one of which all players in the region are very proud. As Jérémie Leborgne, business manager of the Basque investment bank HERRIKOA and member of the judging panel, said: “There is now real awareness that innovation is not only found in the big cities.”

Investors should take note because “financing is a constant preoccupation of businesses in the Pays Basque. We need funds that will come to us,” added Neela Tibayrenc, coordinator of French Tech Pays Basque, another member of the judging panel.

To this end, the participation of our area in the FundTruck competition opens the way to new opportunities for the start-ups of the Pays Basque. Next year is already in the diary.