The startup Union Avatars wins the 7th edition of Cuatrecasas Acelera

Cuatrecasas Acelera, the technology startup accelerator program to face innovative legal challenges that the firm launched in 2016, closed its seventh edition today hosting Demo Day in hybrid format from its Madrid office auditorium. After the heads of the participating startups presented their projects and ran a demo of their advances before an expert panel made up of some of the main representatives of the international entrepreneurial ecosystem, Union Avatars received the top recognition. 

This Demo Day closes four months of the program to which Cuatrecasas has provided legal, technological and business support, as well as access to clients, to six startups in the legaltech, healthtech, insurtech and web 3.0 sectors, and for the first time, it included a startup from Portugal. The participating projects have worked and advanced hand in hand with over 80 professionals that were part of this edition’s innovation committee and a team of legal mentors made up of firm lawyers Elena Cuatrecasas, Rebeca Rodríguez, Miguel Sánchez Monjo, Elisabeth de Nadal, Alejandro Negro, Isabel Gandoy, Sónia Queiroz, Ariadna Casanueva and Joana Silveira Botelho. 

During the session, the heads of participating startups Capboard, Clynx, DIVE Medical, Gocleer, Guzzu and Union Avatars presented their projects’ progress before a select jury that included Rafael Fontana, senior partner of Cuatrecasas; Francesc Muñoz, CIO of Cuatrecasas; Vasco Bivar de Azevedo and Diana Rivera, partners at Cuatrecasas; Alberto Gómez, managing partner of Adara Ventures; Aquilino Peña, founding partner of Kibo Ventures; and Eduardo Martínez, CEO and cofounder of Toqio and alumni of Cuatrecasas Acelera. 

In its deliberation, the panel of judges considered essential factors such as the value proposition of each project, its business viability and scalability, the team involved in its creation and development, as well as its progress throughout the program. The final decision was unanimous. Union Avatars is the winning startup of an edition that has stood out for the quality and visibility of all the projects. Union Avatars focuses on creating avatars in the metaverse that automatically adapt to any platform exploiting all possibilities offered by web 3.0, an activity committed to a realistic virtual identity that can provide the safest digital experience in all fields. Its CEO and cofounder, Cai Felip, gave thanks for this recognition as the best possible way to support the project: “Thanks to the Cuatrecasas program, we have been able to advance in the company’s internationalization and professionalization of internal legal processes.”

After congratulating those responsible for the winning project, Rafael Fontana thanked all those attending the event and applauded the excellent reception of an increasingly consolidated program in the accelerator scene, where it stands out especially for its ability to add value to the participating startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in general.

During the event, the heads of Bigle Legal, Parallel and Omnios, three projects that participated in previous editions, demonstrated the degree of maturity reached by their startups, showing some of the work they have done in collaboration with the firm since they went through the accelerator. “After four months in the program, close relationships develop between mentors or collaborators and the startup, which extend beyond the end of the program. We currently continue collaborating with over 50% of our startup portfolio. They are our best ambassadors,” remarked Alba Molina, Cuatrecasas Innovation Project Manager.

Cuatrecasas Acelera has closed a new cycle upholding its interest in discovering and anticipating new business models, fostering development of the most innovative proposals and strengthening the firm’s positioning in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Francesc Muñoz confirms that the level of the firm’s accelerator is consistently higher: “The degree of maturity of the startups that join us is higher year after year, which encourages and forces us to continue innovating and making every edition more attractive to startups. For the next edition, artificial intelligence will be one of the main targets of the program.”