The start-up Biel Glasses wins the 10th Línea Directa Foundation Road Safety Entrepreneurs Award

• The Catalan start-up Biel Glasses has developed smart glasses to ensure safe mobility for people with reduced vision. It combines IA with robotics to detect potential risks during journeys, and uses mixed reality to signal them in an accessible way.
• The winner of the award - chosen from 60 candidates - will receive a net cash prize of €20,000, with no added fees or co-investment, as well as training, mentoring and access to investment rounds.
• The panel, comprising leading figures from the company, the entrepreneurial community and the public administration, prioritised criteria such as the project's effectiveness at improving road safety, its economic viability, sustainable mobility and level of innovation. 
• The start-up Blink Saddles was awarded second place. This Basque company offers a range of bike seats featuring lighting and signalling elements such as indicators, brake-warning lights and rear position indicators to improve road safety for cyclists.

Madrid, 26 April 2024. The Catalan start-up Biel Glasses has won the 10th Línea Directa Foundation Road Safety Entrepreneurs Award. This company from Barcelona designs, manufactures and sells smart glasses that resolve mobility problems and increase autonomy for people with reduced vision, combining IA with robotics to detect potential risks during journeys, and mixed reality to signal them in an accessible way.

Biel Glasses will receive a net prize of €20,000 with no added fees or co-investment as well as access to training and mentoring. At a later stage, they will also be able to access financing rounds from Bankinter's Foundation for Innovation and the IESE Business School.

The start-up Blink Saddles was in second place. This Basque company offers a range of bike seats featuring lighting and signalling elements such as indicators, brake-warning lights and rear position indicators to enhance road safety for cyclists.

This acknowledgement will enable Blink Saddles, along with the winning start-up, to participate in the next South Summit, a major event in the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem that is being held from 5 to 7 June in Madrid. 

The other three finalist were:

• Cristóbal APP (Zaragoza). It aims to reduce accidents and time off work for lorry drivers through a free, user-friendly and easy to use tool that help them improve their health, through back exercises, nutrition, mindfulness and anxiety management, with health assistance in 16 languages.
• Evestel (Pontevedra). The company EVESTEL offers an EmotAI solution that identifies driver fatigue, sleepiness, distraction, stress and anxiety, alerting them to the danger through an audio alert or a message or notification on the vehicle's screen.
• Movivo Movilidad Sostenible (Madrid). This company has developed Vivadén, a smart, retractable speed bump that adapts to its surroundings and helps to slow traffic, penalising drivers who exceed the speed limit, making streets smarter, safer and more sustainable.

Through this award, which this year was extended to sustainable mobility, the Línea Directa Foundation aims to foster entrepreneurship in the area of road safety, supporting and financing innovative ideas that help combat accidents, improve care of victim, promote road safety and create more rational, balanced and environmentally respectful driving models.   

The five finalist start-ups in the 10th edition of the awards presented their proposals using the "elevator pitch" format in front of a panel of eight judges who are leading figures in the company, the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the public administration. The judges selected the winner based on criteria such as the project's economic viability, degree of innovation, sustainable mobility and effectiveness at improving road safety.

• Francisco José Ruiz Boada, Deputy Director General for Mobility Management and Technology of the DGT.
• Clara Gutiérrez, Managing Partner at BRAIN VC Fund.
• Juan Roure, Emeritus Professor of Entrepreneurship at IESE Business School.
• María Jesús Magro, Managing Director of the PONS Foundation.
• Marisol Menéndez, CEO at Bilakatu and #WomenInTechSpain and start-up advisor.
• Juan Moreno Bau, Director of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation.
• Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte, CFO of Línea Directa Aseguradora.
• Mar Garre, Managing Director of the Línea Directa Foundation. 

Previous winners  

Last year's award was won by another Catalan company, Engidi, which has developed electronic devices integrated into Personal Protective Equipment to improve the safety of workers in particularly dangerous environments, especially construction and road maintenance, in order to prevent accidents and people being run over. The winner in 2022, Livall Europe, has developed smart helmets for use with scooters and bicycles, with LED lighting to indicate changes of direction, speakers embedded into the helmet, a windproof microphone and Bluetooth.

The earlier winners of the prize were: Evix (2021), a cervical airbag system integrated into bicycle helmets, which can be extrapolated to other road users; Trucksters (2020), for its innovative road freight transport system using AI and Big Data that saves on delivery times by up to 50%; Textia Innovative Solutions (2019), a Child Restraint System (CRS) manufactured using the innovative 'Varstiff' technology; Closca Design (2018), for the creation of a bicycle helmet for which the volume was reduced by 50% to encourage its use in the urban environment; Help Flash (2017), for its luminous device to avoid collisions, with immediate signalling in case of a breakdown or accident;