Santander X Global Challenge

• Santander X Global Challenge | New era of Customer Experience is a global challenge for startups and scaleups in 11 countries to come up with innovative solutions to enhance customer experience through Open Gateway APIs.
• The six winning projects will share 120,000 euros in prize money, become members of the Santander X 100 global community, and get access to Fintech Station (Banco Santander’s open innovation programme).

Madrid, 17 October 2024 – PRESS RELEASE

Banco Santander, Telefónica and Oxentia Foundation have joined forces to launch Santander X Global Challenge | New era of Customer Experience¸ a global challenge for startups and scaleups in 11 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the UK, Uruguay and the US) to come up with innovate solutions to enhance customer experience.

Project entries must focus on these areas: Personalisation, ensuring experiences tailored to the reality of each consumer; Omnichannel Experience, ensuring a distinctive customer experience by unifying communication channels; and Empathy and Human Connection, combining physical and digital interactions to adapt to customer needs.

Projects must boost operational efficiency and process optimisation to enable greater focus on human aspects that create added value.

Entrants will be able to use telecoms network APIs to integrate innovative applications and digital services to boost the quality of on-demand connectivity and beef up security and anti-fraud measures, among others.

Telefónica will provide its Sandbox so that the startups can test their Open Gateway APIs free of charge, thus promoting innovation and the development of new technology.

The Santander X challenge kicks off today, 17 October, on the Santander X platform and at Telefónica’s Innovation Day (the key innovation date on its calendar). The deadline for entries on the Santander X website is 15 December.

According to Rafael Hernández, Deputy Global Head of Santander Universities,

“Customer experience is being redefined and perfected at a rate of knots and it’s vital that companies adopt cutting-edge technology. By launching this challenge, we want to support businesses that work to meet consumer expectations and anticipate future needs”.

According to David del Val, Global Head of Open Gateway at Telefónica:

“At Telefónica we’re firmly committed to leading the transformation of networks through APIs in collaboration with the GSMA, the Linux Foundation and many of the world’s major players in the global Open Gateway initiative. Our aim is to empower developers by providing them with access to everything that our networks have to offer. We’re certain that, thanks to this effort, the challenge entries will reach the highest levels of innovation”.

An expert panel will pick the six winners, who will share 120,000 euros in prizes: 30,000 euros to three startups (10,000 each one) and 90,000 euros to the three best scaleups (30,000 euros each one). They will also get access to Santander X 100, an exclusive community of Santander X’s most successful startups and scaleups; and Fintech Station, Banco Santander’s open innovation programme.

Through Santander X, Banco Santander helps startups, SMEs, scaleups and entrepreneurial projects grow through the stages of their life cycle — from launching a project to scaling a business or transforming one.

Santander X has added a wide range of free courses in several languages to its challenges, awards and events to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and businesses. It offers unlimited access to online courses on technology, finance, growth strategies and regulations; and special discount on leading technology and electronics brands and legal and IT services.

Santander and its support for education, employability and entrepreneurship

Santander and its support for education, employability and entrepreneurship Santander is firmly committed to progress and inclusive sustainable growth. It has been a pioneering stalwart of education, employability and entrepreneurship for 27 years, standing out among the world’s financial institutions. Santander has deployed more than €2.3 billion and provided over €1.5 billion to help people and businesses through agreements with nearly 1,200 universities and organizations. We also featured in Fortune magazine’s 2023 “Change the World” list as one of the biggest contributors to making the world a better place (www.santander.com/universidades).

Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications service providers in the world. The company offers fixed and mobile connectivity as well as a wide range of digital services for residential and business customers.

With 383 million customers, the company operates in Europe and Latin America. Telefónica is a 100% listed company, and its shares are traded on the Spanish Stock Market and on those in New York and Lima.

Oxentia Foundation and its commitment to innovation and global entrepreneurship

The Oxentia Foundation and its commitment to innovation and global entrepreneurship
The Oxentia Foundation was created to support Oxentia’s goal to address global inequalities through innovation and entrepreneurship. Oxentia has organised international entrepreneurial innovation competitions and awards, and has also provided advice to entrepreneurs to help bring science and technology projects to market, which contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Oxentia was born out of the University of Oxford’s technology transfer company, Oxford University Innovation, with the aim of delivering specialist innovation management services to public and private sector clients worldwide. Its approach is backed by Oxford University’s 30-plus years’ experience supporting academic innovation and entrepreneurship in over 70 countries.