The Santander X Global Challenge | Helping Businesses Prosper competition announced its winners today. Two startups and two scaleups, representing the UK, Mexico, Argentina and the US, and Germany, stood out for their innovative and scalable solutions to support SMEs’ digitalization and boost their efficiency. Close to 700 start-ups and scale-ups submitted their ideas.

The winners of the startup category were Privasee (UK), a data protection platform based on data mapping and a self-updating privacy policy; and Social Piper (Mexico), an AI-based social media marketing solution for SMEs.

In the Scale-up category, the winners were Whyline (Argentina/US), a CRM tool and marketing channel that virtualizes queueing and makes every day errands less stressful; and Alyne (Germany), an AI cyber security and regulatory compliance  solution.

Banco Santander’s global entrepreneurship community, Santander X, opened the challenge on 13 May 2021, with these two categories: Startup, for legally-incorporated companies that market a product or service with annual sales revenue of less than EUR 500,000; and Scaleup, with the same requirements but for companies with annual sales revenue of over EUR 500,000.

The propositions of the four winners stood out for innovativeness, viability, potential impact and scalability. The startups will each receive a cash prize of EUR 10,000 and the scale-ups, EUR 50,000. All winner will receive mentoring from experts in Oxentia Foundation’s global network, and will have the chance to present their solutions to Fintech Station, Santander’s open innovation team.

According to Javier Roglá, global head of Santander Universities, “SMEs are a key driver of economic growth, job creation and social cohesion. Digitalization is creating new business opportunities and challenges for SMEs, which must adapt quickly to market demands. Entrepreneurs, innovators and agents of change are crucial to helping them prosper, which is one of Banco Santander’s missions”.

Steve Cleverley, CEO of Oxentia Foundation, said “We’re delighted to have worked with all the teams taking part in the Santander X Global Challenge | Helping Businesses Prosper. The level of competition and distinction of the 20 finalists shows off the fantastic work entrepreneurs the world over are doing to support SMEs’ growth and create decent work and economic growth in line with the UN’s SDG 8. The four winners are working to offer great, sustainable solutions to help SMEs prosper and we hope their involvement in this challenge gives them the impetus to generate impact at scale.

About Banco Santander

Banco Santander, the leader in responsible banking, is firmly committed to progress and inclusive sustainable growth. Through Santander Universities, it has been a pioneering stalwart of higher education for 25 years, standing out among the world’s financial institutions. Banco Santander has committed more than EUR 2 billion and awarded over 630,000 scholarships and grants since the Universities programme began.

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 activities. Globally, Oxentia has designed, developed, and run awards, competitions and programmes supporting early-stage innovators and entrepreneurs to promote commercialisation of science and technology based-innovation projects impacting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Oxentia developed out of the University of Oxford’s technology transfer company, Oxford University Innovation, with the aim to deliver specialist innovation management services to clients in the public and private sector all over the world. Its approach is grounded in a strong Oxford heritage based on over 30 years’ experience in supporting academic innovation and entrepreneurship in Oxford, and globally in over 70 countries.