Across the ecosystem, many early-stage teams faced similar barriers:

• Strong technical or conceptual ideas, but insufficient validation and a limited understanding of their customer persona
• Difficulty defining realistic go-to-market pathways and setting clear roadmaps and milestones for the next 6–12 months
• Limited exposure to investors, operators and experienced practitioners, and uncertainty about how to present their solution when those opportunities arose
• Challenges translating deep-tech solutions or sustainability ambition into scalable, viable business models

Valencia Innovation Capital sought a programme that would do more than inspire. It needed to combine learning with active engagement, while providing the tools, frameworks and insights required to de-risk innovation and help participants make visible, practical progress within a relatively short timeframe.

Net Positive Labs designed a hybrid accelerator combining global expert input, in-person workshops in Valencia, structured assignments and highly targeted mentorship.

The emphasis was not on theory, but on application. Participants were supported in testing assumptions, refining value propositions, validating customer personas and developing concrete go-to-market pathways for their solutions.

Over the course of the programme, more than 50 architects, engineers, consultants and deep-tech entrepreneurs worked intensively with international experts and mentors to move their ideas closer to market readiness.

By the end of the accelerator:

• Teams had further validated and refined their solutions through practical feedback
• Participants developed clearer MVP and go-to-market testing strategies
• Customer personas and value propositions were sharpened through real input
• Teams left with a concrete roadmap for further development and scaling
• The programme created the conditions for a community of innovators, mentors and supporters to extend beyond its duration

Programme feedback

Facilitation: 5.0 / 5.0
Content quality: 4.8 / 5.0

“A truly inspiring experience — great mix of ambition, collaboration, and impact.”
— Txema Puch, Director, iTeam Madrid (leStart / Endesa)

“Fantastic job applying design thinking to real challenges.”
— Batiste Vidal, Elecke

“The quality of the lecturers and the opportunity to hear from them first hand was excellent.”— Marta Borrás Roselló, Sustainability Architect and Project Manager

Cities often have clear climate and sustainability ambitions, but turning those ambitions into practical solutions, while meaningfully supporting deep-tech startups so they can contribute to those goals, is a different challenge altogether. What Valencia Innovation Capital set out to do, and what this programme enabled, was to bridge that gap, focusing on Near Net Zero Energy Buildings. 

Rather than supporting ideas in isolation, the accelerator helped innovators work through real market conditions, refine their thinking with expert input, and leave with clearer, actionable pathways forward. In doing so, it strengthened not only individual projects, but the city’s broader ability to foster credible, solution-driven innovation in the built environment.

The result is a tangible example of how a city can move beyond strategy and actively create the conditions for sustainable solutions to emerge, mature, and scale.

This initiative illustrates a different role a city can play in innovation, not only as a regulator or funder, but as an active enabler of better solutions by helping innovators think more clearly, validate earlier, and progress faster.

Throughout the programme, teams were pushed to validate sooner, think sharper, and work within real constraints. Participants left not only with clearer plans, but with better judgement, stronger positioning and a more realistic understanding of their path to market.

For Valencia Innovation Capital, this was a practical way to strengthen the pipeline of credible net zero solutions emerging from its ecosystem and to support them forward in a meaningful way. The result is a stronger foundation for sustainable innovation than funding or inspiration alone can provide.