EU-LAC Digital Accelerator Launches Open Call #4 for Corporate-Startup Partnerships

The EU-LAC Digital Accelerator has officially opened Call #4, inviting corporate-startup partnerships from the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean to apply for its cross-border acceleration programme. This call runs from 1 July to 31 October 2025 and offers tailored support to partnerships solving digital challenges, especially those in e-services, though all industries and digital specialisations are welcome.

To apply, partnerships must include:

• A corporate facing a digital or operational challenge.
• A startup or SME offering a tech-based solution.

This round introduces e-services as a new thematic focus, think digital fan engagement platforms, virtual museum tours, or AI-powered bank onboarding but solutions from any digital domain are eligible.

Why to Apply?

Selected partnerships gain access to:

• Up to €30,000 in acceleration services (€40,000 if a Caribbean partner is involved), covering proof of concept, business case, investment and scaling.
• Grants up to €10,500 for selected startups/SMEs for proof-of-concept development and execution.

Through its 6-month programme, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator helps teams co-create solutions ready for real-world deployment, across borders. For example, Peru’s Latina TV is working with Spain’s Smart Protection to combat content piracy with AI-powered detection tools.

The internationalisation differentiator

The EU-LAC Digital Accelerator stands out as an accelerator for international partnerships.

In other words, the purpose of the accelerator is not only to make partnerships work on a product or service that can be commercialised, but also on a product or service that can be commercialised in a new market for one of the partners.

The Internationalisation & Soft-landing strategy service delivered by the accelerator answers this need by tackling regulation and tax issues as well as cultural aspects in order to “land” smoothly in a new country:

For this reason, applying partnerships must be located in distinct regions (the European Union, Latin America, and the Caribbean). By way of illustration, a Caribbean startup would only be able to apply along with a European or Latin American corporate. In order to help corporates and startups without a partner find an innovation mate, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator has set up a matching platform.

With close to 60 corporate challenges and over 1,450 startups willing to bring their digital expertise, the matching platform has grown to become a strong marketplace where corporates and startups can get in touch and agree on a partnership before applying together to the open call.