How Barcelona Startup Aditium Helped Manage MWC 2015

Aditium’s TickTrack technology managed access control of Barcelona’s two biggest tech events.

Nowadays it is rare to know a person that does not own a mobile phone; it has practically become a necessity in the 21^st century. This current year will become the year of mobile pay and Near Field Communication (NFC) will make this happen. NFC is the technology that offers the security and values that companies need to flourish technologically.

But the NFC is not only used to conduct payments, but it can also be used to convert any smartphone in a powerful business tool. In the next decade, the mobile phone will be the default tool to inform users, execute payments, and validate services.

Barcelona startup Aditium, a company that uses a cloud based platform to customize any kind of rules for business and check them in real time using a smartphone, took the initiative of using this technology and implemented it in the Mobile World Congress in 2015. This company achieved this by using mobile phones as an access control. This is only one example of the many uses of this powerful technology.

Eneko Arza, CEO and Co-founder of Aditium, says that Aditium was created because of the Aditiums’ attraction to the current smartphone world. Smartphones truly make our lives so much easier. It’s like having the Internet in the palm of your hand. Also, Spain is the European leader of penetration of these devices and for many people of our generation it’s the indispensable.

Aditium’s team is made up of:

Eneko Arza, Informatics Engineer and entrepreneur. Before Aditium, Arza worked for various IT consultants that eventually lead to the creation of various companies.
Ibai Iturricha, a Telecommunications Engineer. Before Aditium, he worked as an I+D engineer in two of the most important centers of investigation in the nation.
Xabier Iván Losada, Technical Engineer in Telecommunications. Before Aditium, he worked as a researcher related to the NFC technology.

The three of them now exclusively dedicate their professional life to Aditium.

Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur and start your own company?

Almost five years ago, we started the development of solutions, drawn to NFC technology because of its multiple and flexible applications to daily life. The incorporation of this technology and the possibilities it offers, this attraction led us to quit our jobs and dedicate ourselves to the creation of Aditium. We believe in the potential of the development of contactless solutions for mobile phones in all types of situations, such as transportation, events, commerce, etc. We love what we do and we feel that we are part of a big movement that’s changing the way that we interact with these devices.

What necessity do you solve with Aditium? Why did you decide that it was worth your time to solve this problem? Also, in which phase do you currently find your company and what do you think is the most important lesson you’ve learned until now since the creation of Aditium?

When Aditium was born, there were very few models with NFC technologies in the market, becoming one of the pioneer companies in this field. Furthermore, our projects have created interest in those who security and speedy response is fundamental. An example of this is Ticktrack. Ticktrack is a management solution based on the Cloud that allows service companies a simple way to manage their services in real-time taking the opportunity of this technology that many have at hand, aka the smartphone. This solution is useful in the fields of transportation, event planning, hotels, retail and many more.

We are developing NFC systems closed-loop that allows any company with a mobile phone strategy- nowadays we have the opportunity to offer the most advanced services to consumers.

And this is only the beginning and currently we are working and many other solutions that we hope will be materialized during this year.

How has Wayra helped Aditium during this time? How has working in Telefónica helped the development of your company? What are your most important achieved milestones? What are your current objectives for Aditium?

Aditium was born in the Basque country, just like its partners. We started growing as people and later as entrepreneurs. We knew everything about our surroundings.

However, the day we embarked our journey into Wayra we knew that everything was going to change and that the image that we had for Aditium was going to transform into a more global dimension. Wayra’s presence has given us a global and competitive perspective and that transformed our company for the better. This perspective is essential for the development of any company.

Ticktrack is the solution for which we entered in Wayra. This product has become part of the solutions of Telefónica’s Innovation Center, not only in Barcelona, but also in Madrid. Thanks to the development of Ticktrack, we can provide the public with a real demonstration of our star solution.

Our greatest achievement is ,without a doubt, our adaptation capacity as a team and company. This adaptation has let us inculcate new learning processes in a quick, natural and dynamic form.

Our objectives are clear, we are very conscious of our potential, the scalability of our company and the obligation to close agreements, which are the final boost to all these years of hard work. These objectives throughout our time in Wayra have become a reality that is in our grasp.

Since 2012, we have been offering a variety of services for companies what in return lend their services to thousands of users. Ticktrack responds to more than 10,000 users with more than 220,000 operations every month. We hope that 2015 will be a successful year.

Any advice you would give to entrepreneurs in initial stages of their companies?

There is a Spanish phrase that states: “the one who seeks receives” therefore, don’t give up and have lots of courage.