ESADE and Banco Sabadell name Visualnet best start-up of the year
ESADE Alumni and Banco Sabadell have agreed to award this year's ESADE Alumni & Banco Sabadell Award for Best Start-Up to Visualnet, a Spanish company that has recently opened offices in Los Angeles to better serve the main Hollywood producers. The award will be accepted by the company's founder, Enrique Irazoqui, on 4th July within the framework of a day of talks, discussions and activities focused on Spain's new Entrepreneurs Act and current challenges and opportunities in the sector. Guests will include prominent government officials, entrepreneurs, investors and experts.
This is the second edition of the annual award for the best start-up, which was set up in 2012 by ESADE Alumni and which, beginning with this year's edition, will henceforth be awarded jointly with Banco Sabadell, in keeping with the financial institution's interest in promoting entrepreneurship. The award is intended to boost and stimulate entrepreneurial and investment activity in society at large, both among ESADE alumni and other people interested in founding or investing in start-ups and other young companies. To this end, the new award will recognise initiatives that are remarkable both for their originality and innovation and their proven technical and financial viability.
Visualnet: from Spain to Hollywood
Visualnet is a Spanish company that has recently opened offices in Los Angeles to become the world's largest online service directory for the audio-visual production industry. The site already has some 130,000 registered companies and professionals from the US film, television, advertising, video and new media industries (more than 80% of all companies associated with the sector) and receives more than 15,000 hits a day. Its main markets are the US, Canada, the EU, and Latin America.
In the film production industry, services such as camera equipment rental, studios, editing facilities, mobile units, etc., are outsourced. Most Hollywood producers still use antiquated systems to find, contact, and choose their providers. This both limits the number of bidders and hinders the desired reduction of costs. Visualnet, managed by Enrique Irazoqui, modernises and streamlines the whole process, turning its web directory into an online platform that clients can use to request the services they need and receive a list of available companies, prices, booking information and contact details. VisualBids Marketplace is a proven model that offers savings of up to 60% on production costs and is used by clients such as Sony, Fox, NBC, ABC, etc.
To finance its international expansion, in 2011 Visualnet obtained €1 million in seed money, €250 thousand of which came from the ESADE Business Angel Network (ESADE BAN) and the rest from public financing instruments.
Alumni Entrepreneurship Day
The award will be given to Visualnet's founder, Enrique Irazoqui, on 4th July within the framework of Alumni Entrepreneurship Day, a day of talks, discussions and activities focused on Spain's new Entrepreneurs Act, opportunities for investors, and the experiences of successful entrepreneurs.
Álvaro Nadal, Secretary of State and Director of the President's Economic Office, will close the event with a talk on the new Entrepreneurs Act.
Successful entrepreneurs, such as the founders of LetsBonus, Kantox, AB-Biotics, Ideas4all and Ulabox, will share their experiences, and senior executives from VC firms such as Nauta Capital, Active Venture, Summit Venturing and Kibo Ventures will have a panel discussion on funding and investment opportunities for start-ups.