The Technology Park of Alava, in Vitoria, hosted the first learning session of Bind 4.0. Four Industry 4.0 specialists from 3 startups and a startup friendly consultancy introduced the selected participants of Bind 4.0 to the challenges they have gone through while working in this field.

bind 4.0 in bic arabaNext sessions will cover Agile Work Methodologies, Industry 4.0 Business Models, Usability in Industry 4.0, Business Opportunities derived from Digital Transformation & Millenials, Organizational Skills Development, Growth Hacking in B2B, Commercial Strategies Development, Investor Communication Skills, Legal Aspects of Startup Development and the Opportunities of Industry 4.0 in the following industries: Energy, Auto & Mobility, Health & Agrotech and Fintech.

And these are some of the teachers: Tuvia Rosenthal, Ron Zahavi, Pedro Jareño, Erika Merz, Rosa García, Barak Berkowitz, Gonzalo Martínez Azagra, Xabi Alvarez and Pascual de Dios. The first session’s speakers were Jon Ander Goyenechea (Mizar), Alberto Conde (Nem Solutions), Enrique Bueno (Lis Solutions) and Aitor Moreno (Ibermática).

Alberto CondeJon Ander Goyenechea, explained how additive manufacturing startup Mizar was born in 2014 out of Alcor, a group of companies that manufacture auto and aeronautics components. Though they have activities in medical, aerospace and industrial areas, the most active activities are currently in the aerospace industry.

What do they do for them? Mizar started delivering processes for those companies interested in additive manufacturing and has evolved into providing end-to-end solutions. “Customers have taken us here. It’s the result of constant review of the strategy”, explained Goyenechea. Mizar’s technical and commercial teams meet every week and the whole startup assembles once every month just to adapt their product strategy.

And where are new technologies taking industry? Goyenechea believes all factories will be smart in the sense that they will be remotely managed at mid term with all the data that their machines are providing in real time. As of additive manufacturing, there is still a long way to go.

Enrique BuenoAlberto Conde, founder and CEO of predictive maintenance startup NEM Solutions, explained how he created the company in 2007 while working for railway manufacturer CAF in an intraprenurial process. “We developed a technology that we license to customers, mainly in the railway and wind industries offering turnkey solutions”, Conde said. NEM Solutions has grown exponentially and now has annual revenues over €5 million and 51 workers, an amount which is large for a startup.

But everything has not been easy. Besides having problems to recruit talent in the big data field, NEM Solutions competes with huge multinationals such as GE or IBM. NEM Solutions explores continuously new fields, such as healthcare, which was rejected after a deep analysis due to sector’s time to market. “We focus on the wind and rail industry, where we calculate we can get a 20% market share in Europe and North America working with our current customers in the next year”, Conde added.

Aitor MorenoEnrique Bueno, from LIS-Solutions, explained how a startup is competing with big data providers by specializing in logistics. “Founders worked in this industry and one of our advantages is that we always try to build relationships and not just sell projects”, he explained.

Finally, Aitor Moreno, from Ibermática, explained how an Artificial Intelligence unit was built in this old 3,100 employees consultancy. “At the beginning this was just research and nobody was sure it was going to get any further, but we are now 15 data scientists, 20 business intelligence consultants and 20 infrastructure specialists”, explained Moreno. He also gave examples of startups that are partnering with them, as Sabbatic, Airestudio, Idomics, Denodo or Enerki.