What do the things your grandfather did have to do with public funding for startups

There was a time when many things were done “because they had always been done that way”. Your grandfather wrote down phones in a worn-out notebook. Your grandmother knew by heart who to call if something went wrong. And if there was an emergency, there were no shortcuts, the route to follow was always the same and it involved getting up, looking for the number, dialing and waiting.

Although we now see it with astonished eyes, it wasn't clumsy, much less that they didn't know how to do it better. In fact, our grandparents used the tools and context at their disposal based on the world as it was built.

Today the situation is quite different. When an elderly person suffers a fall, a device can automatically detect it and alert emergencies without the responsibility of warning falling on the person who has suffered the accident. As we said, this change for the better stems from the fact that someone, at a certain time, wondered why things had to be so fragile.

From everyday friction to solutions

This leap, from “is what there is” to “this can be done better”, is not only technological, it is mental, cultural and, above all, collective. Remote assistance emerged from daily friction, the kind that is repeated in silence until someone decides to look at them head-on. From there began a long and inconspicuous path, made up of adjustments, learning and discrete decisions, which over time made it possible to turn a fragile intuition into a solution that works today.

The invisible role of the innovation process

This process usually involves more than one person and requires more than enthusiasm. Innovating takes time and resources, and requires taking risks before there is clear validation in the market. At this point, public funding for R+D+i appears as a tool that helps certain ideas to advance sufficiently to be tested and evaluated under real conditions. There are public programs with different support formats that facilitate technological development in startups and emerging companies, from direct grants to soft loans or tax incentives that support research and development activities. In Spain, institutions such as ENISA, the Center for Technological and Industrial Development (CDTI) or European Union programs such as Horizon Europe offer lines of support that can accompany projects that need to consolidate an early phase of maturation before accessing private funding.

Public funding as an early lever

Public funding works within structured frameworks and with clear planning and justification requirements. These mechanisms do not transform an idea into success on their own, but they provide resources that allow teams to validate hypotheses, adjust solutions and generate the first results that attract attention and trust. Public organizations such as the CDTI offer specific support for technological startups that face complex technical challenges, with calls that finance prototype development and first operational versions.

This support has a logic that goes beyond the simple transfer of money. Public programs are part of a larger ecosystem in which collaboration between public entities, universities and companies expand the available knowledge base and promote learning networks. From a global perspective, around one third of total funding for research and development comes from public funds, creating conditions that allow emerging companies and research centers to collaborate and share capacities.

Impact on the Spanish startup ecosystem

The role of these mechanisms is particularly visible when looking at the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a whole. In Spain, the startup sector has grown steadily in recent years and its added value exceeds 110 billion euros, with an investment volume that has increased in venture capital and other financial instruments. This growth is not only explained by private investment rounds but also by the existence of an environment in which public and private innovation are articulated at different times in the life cycle of emerging companies.

Public funding for R+D+i is not a shortcut or a guarantee of immediate success. It is a tool that allows us to sustain a critical stage of the innovation process in which an idea must be converted into an operational proposal capable of attracting more resources and attention. In this sense, understanding well what lines of support exist and how to access them is part of the strategic learning of any startup that aspires to scale solidly.

The philosophy of Santalucía Impulsa

In Santalucía Impulsa projects are explored that start precisely from there: from observing reality carefully, detecting real frictions and applying judicious innovation to transform them. Not from the epic of “everything is possible”, but from a more sober and powerful conviction that many things can be done better if given time, support and context.

Because almost all the solutions that seem obvious today began to seem unnecessary. And almost all of the ones we'll need tomorrow don't look like it yet.