- The EU-LAC Digital Accelerator invites business partnerships to apply to its open call #5. Partnerships must involve a corporate entity facing a digital challenge and a startup or SME developing a solution to address it.
- For open call #5, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator opens a new opportunity area: sustainable mobility. However, applications from all industries are welcome.
- EU-LAC partnerships must include at least one corporate and one startup from two of the following regions: the European Union, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
- Selected candidates will receive acceleration services valued at up to €30,000 (€40,000 if a Caribbean partner is involved), organised around three pillars: proof of concept, business case, and investment and scaling.
Corporates and startups look for each other, but don’t know how to make it work
Following the MIT Sloane Management Review, it is estimated that 7 corporate-startup collaborations out of 10 fail to reach the expected results. A wide range of factors can explain this high failure rate: misaligned cultures and objectives, low flexibility of the corporate’s legacy systems, no product validation, etc.
Through a dedicated corporate-startup acceleration programme, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator supports international partnerships among Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean to achieve their digital innovation goals.
Startups allow corporates to explore innovative solutions to their unsolved needs and problems. They provide unique insights that have not been considered or tested. It ultimately has a real impact on the profit and loss statement, generating new revenue streams or saving costs.
Miguel Rodríguez, Open Innovation Consultant, EU-LAC Digital Accelerator
To access the acceleration programme, corporate-startup partnerships must apply to the open calls organised by the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator.
Corporates and startups invited to contribute to sustainable mobility (but not only)
Open call #5 for corporate-startup partnerships is open from 6 February 2026 to 12 June 2026.
Applying partnerships should include:
- A corporate facing a product or process-related challenge.
- A startup or SME providing a digital solution to this challenge.
For open call #5, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator expands its focus to sustainable mobility.
In other words, the accelerator will welcome any digital mobility service that reduces environmental impact while maintaining at least comparable levels of economic activity.
For instance:
- City‑scale transport twins that allow planners to simulate new bus lines, lane changes or roadworks on a virtual copy of the network, seeing impacts on congestion, travel times and emissions before implementation.
- A fleet dashboard that uses GPS trackers and on‑board IoT units to show real‑time vehicle locations and speed.
- Predictive traffic control platform for cities that forecasts congestion 15–60 minutes ahead from sensor and GPS data, and then adjusts signal timing and suggests rerouting strategies across the network.
However, open call #5 is not limited to sustainable mobility. Corporate-startup partnerships from any industry are welcome to apply.
Once selected, partnerships will receive à la carte acceleration services
Taking a close look at the common challenges corporates and startups face when they work together, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator designed a 6-month acceleration programme.
The programme focuses on three use cases:
- “Makers”: A corporate and a startup jointly develop a new product tailored to the corporate’s needs.
- “Plug-in”: A startup integrates its solution into a corporate’s process.
- “Gateway”: One partner helps the other adapt a product and successfully enter its local market.
To solve these different scenarios, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator grouped a dozen of acceleration services around three pillars:
- Proof of concept: Validate the tech feasibility of the solution and ensure it answers a real need. Corporates and startups ranked services belonging to this pillar 8.9/10 on average.
We first support partnerships in reducing uncertainty when developing their innovation by conducting a proof of concept service to determine the feasibility of the project. Such a service demonstrates the strength of novel concepts and the challenges to overcome.”
Txomin Rodríguez, Product & Business Development Consultant, EU-LAC Digital Accelerator
- Business case: Build a business model that generates revenue and establish a winning international global expansion strategy. Corporates and startups ranked services belonging to this pillar 8.4/10 on average.
[Partnerships] gain insights on the most promising markets to approach, key potential clients, distribution channels, and other key aspects to go abroad.
Rubén Carrandi, Senior Project Leader, EU-LAC Digital Accelerator
- Investment & Scaling: Produce and sell at scale, and position the partnership to attract investment to improve the newly built solution. Corporates and startups ranked services belonging to this pillar 8.5/10 on average.
Both corporates and startups can expect a polished pitch, improved presentation skills, and direct exposure to investors. This leads to increased investment opportunities and stronger relationships with investors.”
Xènia Colomer, EU Projects Manager, EU-LAC Digital Accelerator
In a matter of months, through a supervised collaboration process, corporate-startup partnerships can bring a solution closer to commercialisation, whereas without supervision, such a process can take years and offer a lower likelihood of success.
Up to €10,500 in grants for startups to support proof-of-concept development and execution
A proof of concept is an essential line on a startup’s resume for long-term collaboration with corporates.
It validates technical feasibility before investing further into a prototype and, at a later stage, an MVP.
The proof-of-concept service is the most popular offering for corporate-startup partnerships. For this reason, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator unlocked grants of up to €10,500 per startup:
- €7,000 for proof-of-concept development.
- Up to €2,000 to travel to the corporate’s premises to run a proof of concept experiment.
- Up to €1,500 to transport the necessary equipment to test the solution.
Startups can check their eligibility and apply for the grant by contacting their assigned mentor at the beginning of the programme.
The example of a Spanish electricity giant partnering with an AI Chilean startup
Ormazabal is a global leader in electrical distribution solutions. It continuously purchases raw materials, including copper, aluminium, and steel.
However, raw material prices can be highly volatile. While Ormazabal may have committed to a price with its customers, its production costs may have increased overnight.
Ormazabal thus partnered with Bork, a Chilean startup that came with an AI-powered tool to predict price volatility.
Both companies were matched and accelerated by the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator.
To this day, Bork has successfully executed a proof of concept with Ormazabal. This served as a door to the European market: the startup signed on three additional clients in Spain.
To help corporates and startups without a partner find an innovation partner, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator has launched a matching platform.
With over 40 corporate challenges and close to 1,900 startups willing to bring their digital expertise, the matching platform has grown into a robust marketplace where corporates and startups can connect and agree on a partnership before applying together to the open call.
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The internationalisation differentiator
The EU-LAC Digital Accelerator stands out as an accelerator for international partnerships.
For startups, as was the case with Bork, a successful collaboration with a foreign corporate is the perfect springboard to enter a new market.
The International growth & Soft landing service delivered by the accelerator answers this need by tackling regulation and tax issues as well as cultural aspects in order to “land” smoothly in a new country:
Applying partnerships must be located in distinct regions (either the European Union, Latin America, or the Caribbean). By way of illustration, a Caribbean startup would only be able to apply alongside a European or Latin American corporate entity.
The EU-LAC Digital Accelerator has already onboarded 45 corporate-startup partnerships
We applied because the EU-LAC programme provides the right framework to validate our technology in real regional contexts, while enabling us to advance our PoC in a structured, focused, and impact-driven way.
Morten Wolter, CEO, Wimesa
More than 45 corporate-startup partnerships have either completed the acceleration programme or are currently participating in it. Interested corporates and startups can review the product and market impact delivered by the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator, with more than 20 case studies published on the accelerator’s website under the Success stories page.
Partnerships can submit their application form in 10 minutes via the open call page, where they can also download the “Guidelines for Applicants,” which detail, in particular, eligibility requirements and evaluation criteria.
For more information, contact the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator team.
