Banco de Sabadell : Sabadell has provided startups with more than 200 million euros in funding

• The company is also a benchmark in investment technology based startups thanks to its three investment vehicles: BStartup 10, Sabadell Venture Capital and InnoCells.
• BStartup: 4 Years From Now (4YFN) Gold Partner for the sixth year
• As part of 4YFN (the innovation and startup platform in the Mobile World Congress), the bank has unveiled a live demo of an application which allows users to make payments using a chip implemented under their skin

To date, Banco Sabadell has granted more than 200 million euros of funding to startups. The entity has been supporting these types of emerging companies for more than five years, which has led to 2,895 startups becoming customers of the bank. Furthermore, through its investment vehicles BStartup10, Sabadell Venture Capital and InnoCells, the entity is now a direct investee in 67 companies.

Further proof of Banco Sabadell's commitment to the entrepreneurial ecoysystem is its presence, for the sixth year, in BStartup (its business division for entrepreneurs) as a gold partner of 4 Years From Now (4YFN), a platform to connect startups, investors and corporations, organised by the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 4YFN is celebrated in Barcelona from 25-27 February, and Banco Sabadell will be present with its teams specialising in funding and investment in startups, innovation and technology.

In this sixth edition of 4YFN, Bstartup, Banco Sabadell will use its stand to present 15 startups in which it holds a stake, which are in different stages of development. Furthermore, as part of 4YFN, Banco Sabadell will be offering its own programme of activities, with presentations by directors of areas related to investment and innovation, and also with keynote speeches and conversations with investors such as Martín Casado, partner at Andreesen Horowitz, and Ravi Kurani, from Earlybird Venture Capital.

A new way to pay: with a wave of your hand

Banco Sabadell, through its digital business hub and its corporate venture arm, Innocells, has unveiled a new payments system, which only requires a wave of your hand. It is a prototype formed of a NFC chip which is implemented under the skin. Yesterday, it wasrevealed to the general public for the first time at Banco Sabadell Stage 4YFN.

In the live biohacking demo two entrepreneurs were willing to test out the new system using their own hands. The chip was implemented in the first entrepreneur through an injection between the tip of their thumb and their index finger. The second entrepreneur, who was already wearing the chip, made a payment using the Banco Sabadell mobile application. Anna Puigoriol, Service Solutions Director of the entity, joined the stage to explain the entity's processes towards achieving these types of developments: 'We work to satisfy our customer's needs, and at this particular time we are carrying out several pilot tests and payment experience demos. Some of them will make the cut, and others won't, depending on how customers react to them'.

These types of chips have the same thickness as a grain of sand and they are commonly used in certain types of medical treatment, but their uses do not extend to much further than converting them into keys or using them as a tool to work with augmented reality. The current from the implementation of technology in human bodies is known as biohacking.