San Sebastian opens EKINN, the new Innovation and Entrepreneurship lighthouse city project, with the aim of fostering innovative entrepreneurship and make the city reach new heights in terms of innovation, entrepreneurship, ecosystem development and international connections.
The City Council, through its Innovation Agency, Fomento de San Sebastián, opens EKINN, the space focused on fostering innovative entrepreneurship, that will include the municipal one stop-shop for entrepreneurs. This new facility has 700 m2 and will offer personalized attention and guidance for the development of projects and business initiatives. This new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub is a 4,500 m2 building located in Alto de San Bartolomé, in the heart of the city, and it is equipped with coworking areas, meeting rooms and two auditorium, which coexist with the 70 apartments on the upper floors to temporarily accommodate entrepreneurs, as well as a space for meetings and events.
The Mayor of San Sebastian, Eneko Goia, the Councilor for Economy and Local Employment, Marisol Garmendia and Fomento San Sebastián Managing-Director, Iñigo Olaizola, attended the opening, alongside with a wide representation of organizations from the educational, business and technological fields, linked to the innovation ecosystem.
EKINN: a space for the ecosystem and the citizens
EKINN will concentrate all the resources that Fomento San Sebastián develops to support entrepreneurs, with comprehensive and personalized support that includes: information and guidance, specific training, advice, funding, work spaces and promotion and visibility.
EKINN aims to bring the entrepreneurial reality closer to citizens, especially young people, offering them the necessary resources so that their ideas and initiatives can be transformed into business projects. EKINN is designed as an open space, located in the heart of the city in Alto de San Bartolomé.
In addition to the one stop-shop for entrepreneurs, the building includes in its common areas four professional offices, a coworking area, training rooms, an auditorium and a space for meetings and events. On the upper floors, 70 apartments with surfaces between 25 m2 and 45 m2 will accommodate people linked to the field of innovation and entrepreneurship, 12 of them being reserved for young people from San Sebastián.
