La Farola, Andalucía Open Future's startup acceleration space in Malaga, was visited by around thirty students from the Master's Degree in Social Development of Artistic Culture at the University of Malaga. During the meeting, the students were able to learn about the acceleration methodology of the initiative from the director of La Farola, Juan Carlos Urbano, and explore with two startups existing opportunities in the field of digital entrepreneurship.

La Farola is promoted by the Department of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities and Telefónica, with the collaboration of Malaga City Council. Its aim is to work with the best startups to consolidate their businesses and guide them so that they know how to face investment rounds.

The director of the space explained that La Farola is an innovation space that arises from public-private collaboration, offering opportunities for both entrepreneurship and employment in companies with a high degree of technological development. La Farola opened its doors in Malaga in 2015 and since then more than 70 technology-based startups have been accelerated in this space, with a survival rate of 84{30d8e5f83f617ee27c360d89c3cd7ffe85c3eafe3e347e6c7d281a2e3a198d8a}.

The meeting was attended by Nuria Rodríguez Ortega, Professor of Art History at the University of Malaga and Director of the Telefónica Chair ‘5G, new generation networks and information technologies’, who pointed out that this visit aims to arouse the interest of the Master's students and show them that cultural companies can be created by applying technology and innovation, thus transforming this field in its relationship with society.

During the meeting, two companies offered their experience and vision to the students: Waaraya, which is working on a personalised emotional support platform for cancer patients; and Docline, which has a 360º Online Consultation platform that connects healthcare professionals-patients-pharmacies through its video consultation module, private messaging and online prescription.

Andalucía Open Future offers eight months of personalised mentoring by experts in strategic areas of business and innovation. With more than 4,000 hours of mentoring for the startups selected in the last year, this programme is one of the most requested initiatives by Andalusian entrepreneurs, with more than 1,100 applications received in total. Since its launch in 2014, Andalucía Open Future has accelerated 220 startups in the region.