We have the pleasure to present SensoWave,  a bioeconomy startup supported by  EBN Member BIC Euronova and benefiting from the opportunities offered by EBN.

Created in 2013, SensoWave specialises in farming and livestock industry by implementing innovative solutions based on Internet of Things (IoT). Nowadays, SensoWave has expanded internationally, by establishing distribution networks for France, Ireland, Italy, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Australia.

Their story

Initially created to develop technological solutions in the ICT sector at the very beginning of IoT,  SensoWave has shifted the focus of their core activity to livestock and farming industry inspired by the story of their colleague: ”One day in the summer of 2014 our colleague Ruben came from his cattle farm and he was very depressed because they had lost many animals due to a lack of surveillance”, Carlos Callejero, SensoWave’s CEO,  remembers how digitisation of livestock sector became their business’ primary focus. 

This is how DIGITANIMAL, GPS animal tracker from SensoWave, was developed: “We started by monitoring the animals with a first prototype, but we had to place several antennas on the farm in order to upload the animals' data to the cloud. The revolution came with SigFox, French global communication service provider, since it allowed us to connect the cattle directly to the Internet through its IoT network ”, said Carlos Callejero.

Nowadays, hundreds of farms in Spain use this technology and, to develop new features, the team got in touch with experimental farms and institutes in Spain and France, such as IDELE and INRA, expanding its business worldwide and gaining international outreach in the media, even being featured at BBC and Mobile World Congress 2016!

How has EBN and EBN Member BIC Euronova supported SensoWave?

In 2016, SensoWave met BIC Euronovafor the first time  through SmarAgriFood Fiware accelerator. Thanks to the mentoring services that the BIC has in its pipeline of support services, SensoWave won the 2^nd  best pitch award at SmartAgrifood final event with STEPLA, the first ICT service platform for extensive breeding farms full management that offers location, monitoring, and traceability capabilities to locate livestock individuals in real time.

Yet, this was only the first time SensoWave would benefit from the services of the BIC. 

In 2016 Carlos got introduced to CommBeBiz, a project aimed at supporting bioeconomy researchers and entrepreneurs on their journey to innovation. Managed by EBN and other partners, CommBeBiz offers the bioeconomy  researchers and entrepreneurs the opportunity to receive CommBeBiz Innovation Bursaries, enabling the participants to attend CommBeBiz Academies, the tailored events where bursary holders  hear about tools and trends from the EBN business coaches on how to improve their ideas towards the commercialisation, policy and social innovation. Moreover, the participants get the chance to attend the final event (this year in Budapest), featuring workshops, pitching sessions, one-to-one meetings, and get many other benefits by joining the CommBeBiz community. SensoWave took advantage of these opportunities, even winning the CommBeBiz Award for further business coaching that took place at the EBN Congress in Guimarães (Portugal). The Awards’ network for STEPLA not only connected Carlos to new software platforms, but has also led him to potential customers in the fields of smart technology bioeconomy innovations.

The participation at the EBN Congress brought another great opportunity to SensoWave, as Carlos met SAP representatives and entered SAP HANA acceleration programme,  which extends the capabilities of business processes in SAP Business Suite systems by leveraging the performance and scalability advantages that SAP HANA provides.

The relationship with CommBeBiz project and EBN experts and mentors has been long ever since. SensoWave participated as well at CommBeBiz Academy in London in February 2017, when the team met potential distributors and partners in the UK, taking the best out of the event’s networking opportunities. 

About BIC Euronova

Since becoming an EBN Member in 1992, BIC Euronova has played an active role in the network not only by participating in events, training and projects managed by EBN, but has even organised the EBN Annual Congress in Malaga (2003). BIC Euronova is based in Malaga (Spain) and provides a wide range of services to the entrepreneurs in the region: incubation, co-working, consultancy and internationalisation services among others.

SensoWave about why entrepreneurs should seek support from an EU|BIC such as BIC Euronova: “Entrepreneurs usually have great ideas but to create a successful business, much more is needed, and all entrepreneurs have shortcomings. Also, contacting an EU|BIC can help you grow your network of contacts.”

SensoWave is one of the several startups/entrepreneurs that expanded internationally thanks to the support of an EBN Member and the opportunities offered by EBN. Plenty of opportunities available and coming up for startups, including EBN Congress 2018! Stay tuned!