Andorra Business is Andorra’s economic promotion and development agency. Promoting key sectors for the diversification of the economy, attracting and accompanying foreign and local investment, supporting Andorran companies to become more competitive, and facilitating the landing of new companies in the country, are some of its priorities.   

More information: Andorra Business – Invest in Andorra 

Andorra Recerca + Innovation is the agency in charge of developing and promoting R&D&I in Andorra in strategic sectors such as Mountain and Sports, among others. 

More information: Andorra Recerca + Innovació (ari.ad) 

The Global Sports Innovation Center powered by Microsoft (GSIC) is a business cluster powered by Microsoft Sport Team that gathers all kind of sports entities (clubs, federation, associations), institutions, tech-companies from start-ups to enterprises, research organizations, investors and key figures of sport industry to improve its value chain. With headquarters based in Madrid, GSIC supported more than 340 companies such as sport entities, tech companies, startups, institutions, etc., in 40 countries around the world. 

Read more at: http://sport-gsic.com  

Andorra Business and Andorra Research + Innovation (Andorra), in partnership with Global Sport Innovation Center (GSIC) and with the support of SPSG Consulting (SPSG) are launching the second edition of the Andorra Scale-Up Program, to select three of the best sport-tech companies in Andorra and across the world, and help them in their internationalization process.

Andorra and GSIC, with the support of SPSG, have implemented two startups competitions in 2021 and 2022, with the objective of positioning Andorra as a leading country in technological innovation in winter & mountain sports and cycling.

In this context, Andorra and GSIC are now continuing the process with a 3-months scale-up program, not only to find new solutions, but to use their experience, knowledge and resources to contribute to their development and growth and, helping them to become important local and international companies within the sports industry.

The call aims to identify the most promising technological solutions that can help improve the sports industry in general, with priority over those focused in winter and mountain sports and have potential for scalability and internationalization. The program will focus on the sport ecosystem in Andorra, which is naturally connected with Mountain and Winter Sports, but not limited. The Scale-Up Program will help this program to scale and their internationalization efforts.

Candidates to participate must complete their application for admission by registering and submitting information through the following Form.
Applications for admission received or attempted to formalize after the deadline for admission of applications will not be assessed for admission to the program.

Applications Opens: March 11, 2024

Applications Close: April 19, 2024

Winners’ announcement: May 3, 2024

The organizers reserve the right to modify the dates published in the present document.

Applying for this call is completely free. 

Startups and companies with solutions in other markets are welcome if they can implement solutions related to the topics mentioned as objective of the call. 

The call is aimed for companies and entrepreneurs who are in position to start their internationalization process and can contribute with their technological innovation to the evolution and digital transformation of the sports industry. Participants may submit projects/companies that meet the following requirements:

• Be a legally created company
• Have a dedicated full-time team.
• Have market-tested product and potential to implement internationally.
• Have traction, preferably with paying customers, in the sports industry.
• The individual promoter / representative of the startup must be of legal age and must have the legal capacity to be bound. You may not be an employee, manager, partner, or maintain a business relationship with ANDORRA or GSIC at the time of application.
• The promoters of each project/startup may only participate in this call by submitting a single project per company.

Participants who do not fulfill any of these requirements, will not be included in this call, losing the right to receive any service and no claim to ANDORRA and/or GSIC.

Yes.

The following criteria, rated from 1 to 5 (being 1 the lowest and 5 the highest) will be evaluated for the selection of participating projects in each of the stages of the process (verification of eligibility, evaluation and selection):

 1. Innovation – the extent to which the submission is unique to, or adds value to, existing solutions.

2. Impact – the extent to which the submission demonstrates the potential to effect change.

3. Scalability – the extent to which the submission can scale and the potential to implement it internationally.

4. Maturity of the team, the organization and the stakeholders.

5. Sustainability – Social and Environmental sustainability of the project aligned with the sustainability agenda of the Government of Andorra.

6. Business Model – Feasibility and economic sustainability of the project.

The selection of projects will be carried out based on the criteria described in the previous section.

The judging committee will be made up of industry experts and directors from:

• Andorra
• GSIC
• SPSG

The judging committee will be responsible, among others, for ensuring the correct development of the selection process and the quality of the same; resolving any doubts as to the eligibility of applications and the application of the rules; short-listing the most promising startups and projects.

• Verification of eligibility: Once the application period has closed, the projects will be reviewed to ensure that the rules of participation have been complied with. Applications that do not comply with the rules will be eliminated from the process. The judging committee also has the right to ask, if needed, for more information about the project and/or start-up in order to complete the selection criteria. 

• Evaluation and selection: Applications that pass the verification of eligibility will be evaluated by the judging committee in a decision session, wich select the winners accordinlgly.

The program will include the following contents and activities: 

Yes, all the applications must be in English. 

The finalist three selected startups will have the opportunity to access to the three-month scale-up program and all the contents, mentoring sessions and activities that it includes.

Experts from Andorra, GSIC and other entities, in the areas of technology, sport, business, innovation, investment, entrepreneurship, and financing.

For any questions regarding the bases, please contact: [email protected]