Over the next few days, the rural entrepreneurship support platform Ruralizable will be unveiling 18 projects at South Summit Madrid that provide innovative technical solutions to the problems and needs of people living in rural areas.

The featured projects are the winners of the second edition of Ruralizable, which has mentored and promoted the start-up of nearly 50 initiatives. They are now being unveiled at the Ruralizable stand at the South Summit to corporations, investment funds and leaders who are gathering at the largest meeting of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country. They are also participating in the Ruralizable Competition Pitch at this event, in which the best project will be chosen. The prize will be awarded on Friday, 10 June.

Ruralizable is an initiative created by Los18 and the Red Eléctrica Group, with the participation of Hispasat, Elewit and South Summit, which seeks to contribute to the revitalisation of rural Spain through innovation and entrepreneurship.

How Ruralizable works

Ruralizable periodically launches calls that are open to any entrepreneur with an idea or project that has a direct and positive impact on the rural environment.

Professionals with extensive experience in entrepreneurship and innovation, including professionals from Red Eléctrica, Elewit and Hispasat, will mentor them for three weeks to help them define the problem or need they intend to address, analyse the proposed solution and work on the economic logic of the project, with a special emphasis placed on the two main "act of faith" assumptions: assumption of value creation and assumption of growth.
In more advanced projects, which have come up with a minimum viable product to validate hypotheses or which have generated a first income, it is up to the entrepreneur to decide which aspect of their business they want to work on.

These are the 18 projects that are being presented at South Summit

1. Bee Happy Apicultura. “Recuperation of bee space and the importance of bees” The creation of bee reservoirs and maintenance/management of hives, and promotion of beekeeping tourism in the territory connected to a digital platform that facilitates online monitoring of the reservoir, using drones.
2. Blind Explorer. “Turn your open spaces into accessible environments” A digital solution that improves visually impaired peoples’ quality of life, by helping them to move around and discover open spaces unaided.
3. Bosque Rojo “Crop diversification through technology”. A solid project for the cultivation of rosa canina, commonly known as "dog rose", a species native to Castilla y León and which is underused. Its cultivation has sparked great interest because the properties of this plant are similar to those of better-known species such as sweet briar. One example is its vitamin C content, 100 times higher than that of oranges.
4. Crowmie. “Investment in tokenised renewable energy projects” An investment platform for tokenised renewable energy projects, which democratises and decentralises access to project funding.
5. CuYdo. “Improving the quality of life of the elderly and their families through technology”. A system that detects potentially dangerous situations of elderly people living alone, without them having to do anything, just carrying on their normal life at home.
6. DGranja. “Milk consumption through a subscription model”. In a sector with so many intermediaries as the milk sector, where consumption habits are recurrent and quality is constantly in question, fresh milk is delivered directly to consumers. A subscription model is proposed that allows access to an aggregated offer from local producers.
7. Fonte Baxa. “Love for natural spaces”. The creation of a brand whose sale and marketing is projected on a national and international scale.
8. Gre2Jazz. “Jazz Festival at Sierra de Gredos”. An international jazz festival held at Sierra de Gredos, featuring complementary activities throughout the year, attracting visitors and creating employment opportunities.
9. Innogando. “Smartwatches for cows”. A monitoring collar that detects cows' activities in real time and sends information to the cloud where data is processed with artificial intelligence and sent to farmers, consumers and laboratories. It is the winning initiative of the previous edition of Ruralizable, invited to this year’s South Summit.
10. Kaampo. “Smart agriculture for everyone”. Precision agriculture by means of the management of processes and stock control through QR, Barcode and NFC technologies.
11. La casa por el tejado (From the rooftops). “Energy communities for renovating homes” Starting home renovations “from the rooftops” by installing solar panels that will generate funds for a comprehensive energy renovation of homes under the flagship of Local Energy Communities.
12. Munin Space. “Connectivity and intelligence at the service of your crop”. The first low-cost agricultural sensor network that can be deployed anywhere in the world, thanks to its satellite connectivity.
13. Orion agriculture. “Technology for analysing soil nutrient quality”. Soil studies located with GPS and artificial intelligence for designing fertiliser plans.
14. Remote Villages. “Reactivation of rural areas in Santa Cruz de Tenerife”. Promoting experiences between remote workers and local players, in order to generate a socio-economic impact in the rural environment. The experiences generated consist of attracting a group of remote workers to a rural municipality, where they can connect with local players through activities and challenges.
15. Relevo. “A market place that brings together businesspeople and entrepreneurs with Smart contracts”. A rural business market place through a tokenisation platform that facilitates co-investment, defragmenting access to funding and boosting business start-ups.
16. Vente a vivir a un pueblo (Come and live in a village). “The market place for villages in Spain”. An easy to navigate market place that concentrates the supply of housing and opportunities available in rural areas, enabling users to check out the available supply and make their dream of living in a village come true.
17. Vivirtual. “Memorable experiences in the fight against cognitive deterioration”. The use of virtual reality, together with a methodology developed by Vivirtual, allows elderly people to enjoy unique experiences while training their cognitive skills.
18. Salvaje. “The magazine that wants to get you out into the countryside”. Salvaje wants you to put your mobile phone down, stop looking at notifications and get outdoors. To do this, it makes a case for Spain’s wealth of natural and rural locations.