IESE’s weGrow 2021, a mentoring program that pairs startups with experienced executives, was launched Friday with the participation of eight companies seeking to expand in areas ranging from home care for the elderly to ecofriendly hand sanitizer to AI-based cognitive stimulation games.
The startups taking part in weGrow 2021 are:
- Loyal Guru: A SaaS loyalty marketing platform which allows retailers to interact with and retain customers through different channels.
- Aplanet: A provider of technological solutions to organizations to manage and report all of their CSR and sustainability activities.
- Cuideo: A marketplace to find caregivers and other professional care services for seniors.
- Growpro: A platform for services related to international educational experiences in countries such as Australia, Canada and Spain.
- Decotherapy: A marketplace for interior designers and other home decoration projects.
- Haan: An ecofriendly hand-sanitizer manufacturer which earmarks 20% of sales for water projects in developing countries.
- Sincrolab: A developer of AI-based digital therapeutic products centered on cognitive stimulation and used to treat neurological conditions.
- Boxmotions: An intelligent storage provider that picks ups items and creates online catalogs for easy access.
Under the weGrow program, the eight startups are paired with experienced executives, who they meet with over the course of the year. Some 40 mentors, with a wealth of global business experience, are taking part in this year’s edition. In addition, and at the request of past participants, this year three IESE professors — África Ariño, Jorge Gonzalez and Luis Martin Cabiedes – will be among the mentors.
weGrow is designed to help startups that are already on their feet and are looking to scale up, and is one of the many ways IESE supports innovation, growth and job creation. “This forms part of the stable of initiatives that we have at IESE to support entrepreneurs,” said Dean Franz Heukamp in the online launch event.
The program has been expanded to offer targeted mentoring, which involves up to three hours of mentoring on a specific issue, and to include activities such as webinars and workshops in order to advance knowledge and provide networking opportunities. “It’s a community of people who help each other mutually,” Prof. Julia Prats said.
Legal firm Cases & Lacambra is the sponsor of weGrow 2021.