CaixaBank and Plug and Play join forces to drive innovation in the Spanish fintech sector. Juan Antonio Alcaraz, CaixaBank’s Chief Business Officer, and Saeed Amidi, founder and CEO of Plug and Play, have signed an agreement to collectively promote new services for the banking and insurance sector through a collaboration programme with start-ups, which they will support throughout their growth and development. It is the first fintech programme in Spain with the participation of Plug and Play, considered the primary global innovation platform and the most active venture capital fund. The agreement is primarily articulated through the creation of the ’Barcelona Engagement Programme’, the first innovation programme involving Plug and Play in Barcelona. A committee of specialists linked with the programme will identify and select innovative businesses in early phases with fintech and insurtech projects. These companies will be supported by experts to develop proof of concept, and will work together with teams from CaixaBank Payments and Consumer, imaginBank and Plug and Play to solve real business challenges. Furthermore, the agreement with Plug and Play establishes the collaboration to locate innovative projects in the fintech sector that are setting up in other parts of the world, and to explore potential alliances. Meanwhile, the alliance with Plug and Play means that the platform will also work in partnership with CaixaBank’s various lines of open innovation. In its strategy to develop new services and user experience, the entity promotes collaborative work with third parties to detect trends and opportunities, through initiatives such as the Payment Innovation Hub, a multi-sector alliance of businesses formed of CaixaBank, Global Payments, Samsung, Visa and Arval, as well as the zone2boost programme. In this regard, it is important to highlight the synergies of the ’Barcelona Engagement Programme’ with zone2boost, created by CaixaBank in collaboration with Global Payments and Ingenico. This programme, started in 2019, specialises in identifying new business initiatives in the area of technology for retailers and supporting them in their growth, so that they can offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to access high volumes of customers with their projects.