Horeca Challenge, the initiative launched by the MEDIAPRO Group, Damm and Familia Torres to promote the restaurant and catering sector and to develop innovative solutions to boost bar and restaurant sector business in the medium term, culminated this Thursday with the Demo Day, during which the winning startups in the challenge, Click And Plan, PurificAir and Miss Tipsi, demonstrated the results from their pilot tests over the past months to a group of key investors and companies.

Click And Plan, winner in the Customer Influx Management Projects category, have been testing their digital solution to generate influx management plans over the past months in commercial venues in both Zaragoza and Madrid. Thanks to holding small events (trivial pursuit challenges, language classes, etc.), the premises attracted hundreds of new customers and increased turnover, in some cases by up to 50% versus figures for the same time and day of the week in which no events were held. At the end of the test, the four locations in Zaragoza have requested to continue with the startup's payment plan.

Meanwhile, Miss Tipsi, winner in the Profitability Optimization Projects category, showcased the results achieved after implementing its management system for the bar and restaurant sector with four new clients thanks to the Horeca Challenge. These pilot tests allowed the company to analyze what time slots are busier to optimize staffing levels, sales produced per hour, how successful the menu is or inventory management, in addition to demonstrating that the use of digital ordering on the terrace increases turnover by up to 10% not only because of faster service, but also because orders serviced are stored for reuse.

Finally, PurificAir, in the Projects to Ensure Sanitary Conditions category, chose four locations in Valencia in an effort to demonstrate the effectiveness of its solution to improve air quality. Depending on the number of devices used, microorganisms present in the air inside the premises can be eliminated, improving the quality of the air that customers breathe, in addition to eliminating microorganisms deposited on surfaces.

Among the Demo Day audience were prominent entities, investors, funds, and companies such as Antai, FI Group, Bonsai Partners and Nekko Capital. In addition, the Demo Day has concluded with a round table in which Albert Torruella (ACCIÓ), Miquel Martí (Tech Barcelona) and Agustín Picchi (Spanish Startups) participated and where the project itself as well as the impact of the innovation in the sector were discussed and measured.

“In such a complicated public health context, we have seen how technology drives the improvement of business management in bars and restaurants while offering entertainment solutions to users beyond the key days of sporting events. Having been able to collaborate with such important partners as Damm and Familia Torres has made the process an optimal experience that opens the doors to possible future collaborations in the sector”, highlights María Carmen Fernández, Director of Innovation and New Businesses of the Mediapro Group.

“Our priority in this project was to collaborate with Familia Torres and Grupo Mediapro in promoting innovative initiatives that could favor the recovery of a fundamental sector for Damm and for the country's economy, such as the hospitality industry. Undoubtedly, a day like today reaffirms that the commitment to open innovation in the launch of the Horeca Challenge has been a success and that initiatives like these are key to that recovery”, says Laura Gil, director of digital transformation at Damm. 

Mireia Torres, Director of Innovation and Know-how at Familia Torres, commented of the event, “the experience has been very positive, not only because of the excellent reception it received, with more than 200 projects presented, and the success of the pilots, but also because of the excellent collaboration throughout between the partners, which we hope lays the foundations and framework for future collaboration in the field of open innovation”.

The initiative

Mediapro, Damm and Familia Torres launched the Horeca Challenge at the end of 2020, a call for startups in search of innovative business ideas for the catering sector, one of the industries hardest hit due to the consequences of COVID-19. More than 200 companies presented their innovative solution projects, and the jury, made up of professionals from Mediapro, Damm, Familia Torres and ACCIÓ, selected the winning projects in each of the three categories for the challenge: Click and Plan (Zaragoza), Miss Tipsi (Madrid) and PurificAir (Valencia). After receiving notification of their success, the three startups carried out pilot tests of their proposals in a real environment for a period of three months, co-financed by Mediapro, Damm and Familia Torres (€6,000 per project).

Horeca Challenge is supported by ACCIÓ, F6S, the Gremi de Restauració de Barcelona, ​​Hostelería de España, Tech Barcelona and Spanish Startups.