Barcelona City Council is launching a brand-new programme through Barcelona Activa, entitled Sport-Up, which aims to support the creation and growth of companies in the sports innovation and technology industry sector with a global vision in Barcelona. Part of the “Barcelona Sports Tech Hub”, a new sports, technology and innovation creation hub, led by the Barcelona Institute of Sports (IBE), the programme is entering its project-selection stage with the opening of its entry-submission period.

The call, then, will be open from 4 May to 30 May 2021 for entries to take part in the programme for entrepreneurs and projects in the areas of weareables, e-sports, digital training, fantasy sport, sports marketplaces, data apps and physical-activity software, tools for sports professionals and managing sports shows.

Selection process

The first stage will see 20 projects initially selected, through interviews with the manager team. Those that are pre-selected will do a bootcamp or undergo intensive training, involving four days of the project’s modelling work and a Demo Day (presentation of pitches). Once the process has ended, presentations will be given before a tribunal made up of four people from the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the sportstech sector.

Programme’s development

The 12 projects chosen under the Sport-Up programme will have access to training, accompaniment and personalised mentoring, with an itinerary according to the needs of each, and networking activities selected expressly for the purposes of helping to develop their projects and support their search for funding. In addition, they will also have access to a work space in the Almogàvers incubator. The first edition of the programme will last for 8 months, from June 2021 to January 2022. Once the programme ends, Barcelona Activa will hand out a Sport-Up Prize for the best project of each edition, worth 10,000 euros, after a jury has assessed it as the project’s initiative with the most potential.

Barcelona, a benchmark in the sportstech sector

The basic aim of this initiative is to implement a benchmark programme of excellence for creating companies in the area of sports technology industry, as a magnet for initiatives in the field of sports. That way Barcelona will have a support point, under the framework of the Barcelona Sports Tech Hub, for new or recently constituted initiatives for developing a business model in this field, and the city will be positioned as a European benchmark in the sportstech sector, for developing the potential of the city’s sports business fabric, so that support can be given for successful creations and consolidations in a global economy. Each project, what is more, will be promoted among the various public and private groups with links to the sports industry, entrepreneurial culture and the business spirit.