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Innovative startups are businesses designed to grow rapidly by leveraging scalable and replicable business models, rather than merely offering new products or services. A prime example is Uber, which innovated not through its service but through a disruptive business model. The Bankinter Innovation Foundation’s Scaleup Network Spain program supports entrepreneurs transitioning to scaleups, fostering a community for shared learning. Among its notable participants is RatedPower, a Madrid-based SaaS startup founded in 2017, which develops cloud software to optimize solar photovoltaic (PV) plant design. RatedPower recently raised €5.2 million in Series A funding to expand internationally and enhance its product suite, aiming to boost solar energy competitiveness and streamline customer experiences.
RatedPower’s CEO Andrea Barber Lazcano emphasizes that innovation involves creatively solving problems and improving processes to meet consumer needs in novel ways, stressing that successful market implementation is crucial. Their innovation lies not only in technology but also in transforming client workflows to increase efficiency. Barber highlights that innovation permeates all company areas, including communication and customer relations, especially in adapting to pandemic challenges. RatedPower aligns with global trends in renewable energy growth and social responsibility, accelerating the energy transition and reducing solar energy costs. Barber, recognized as a leading young Spanish entrepreneur, advocates for proactive idea generation and the importance of training in turning innovations into market-ready solutions.
Andrea Barber, CEO of climate tech startup RatedPower, talks about how to introduce innovation into a successful business model
When we talk about innovative startups, we are referring to a business model focused on innovation, designed and developed to grow as fast as possible.
And the speed with which an innovative company is able to develop its presence in the market is directly proportional to the scalability and replicability of its business model.
Taking someone in the car is not something innovative, while the business model created around this service by the startup Uber represents an innovation. In other words, a startup can be innovative even without offering a ‘new’ service or product, as long as the products or services it offers are included in a non-traditional business model, which allows the creation of a replicable and scalable business.
The Bankinter Innovation Foundation’s Scaleup Network Spain program seeks to train entrepreneurs from companies that are about to or have begun their transition to scaleups, with very high potential, and at very similar stages of development. The aim is to create a network to share activities, training and experiences among its members.
The program is now in its second edition and among the pioneering participants are some of the most innovative realities of the Spanish ecosystem. This is the case with RatedPower, a SaaS startup that develops cloud-based solutions to help companies discover smarter ways to maximize the potential of solar PV by automating plant design.
RatedPower, innovation at the service of the planet
Founded in 2017, the Madrid-based startup aims to increase the competitiveness of solar energy and provide a seamless customer experience . The €5.2 million newly raised in a Series A round will be used to drive international growth and expansion in key solar markets, particularly in the United States, and accelerate product and feature development.
RatedPower’s mission is to become the SaaS suite of renewable energies thanks to pvDesign software, designed to determine the optimal configuration of a solar installation, with compliance with a series of engineering parameters. Its success is perfectly in line with the latest investment trends in the Spanish ecosystem recorded by the Startup Observatory of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation.
Andrea Barber Lazcano, Managing Partner and CEO of RatedPower, believes that innovation consists of “using creativity and knowledge to create an original solution to a problem, or improve existing processes. In the business arena, these new applications aim to meet consumer needs in a way that hasn’t been done before. But – the directive clarifies – it is not enough to develop an invention, it is necessary for its implementation in the market to be successful”.
In this sense, the startup’s business model is based on offering a fast, complete and innovative solution to a problem: the time and high resources needed to design a photovoltaic plant. “Perhaps most of the process innovation comes when we accompany our customers in the implementation of our software,” explains Barber.
“We need to educate their civil, electrical and business development engineering teams on how to change their workflows to be more efficient. Processes are key to efficiently scaling any area, but we need people to devise and develop these processes,” warns the manager.
In fact, innovation doesn’t have to be technical or technological. A process or solution that improves the way a company relates to its customers and stakeholders or internal communication can be innovative and disruptive without the need to be technical.
Innovation is a holistic process
As Andrea Barber notes, “for us, innovation is part of the objectives in all areas of the company, not only in software development. The methods we have begun to use during the pandemic to communicate with each other, how we establish new relationships with potential customers, have required innovation and getting out of the comfort zone. Innovation never ends and is everywhere.”
The cumulative global capacity of photovoltaic energy has not stopped growing since 2015, being the fastest growing energy source over the last decade. By 2024, its cumulative capacity is expected to exceed 1.4 terawatts and 40% will come from industrial-scale power plants. The pursuit of systemic efficiency is probably the only effective way to combat climate change and achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement to contain rising temperatures.
Social responsibility is another driver of innovation. For RatedPower: “to innovate is to increase the value of society. After all, incorporating innovation and making people’s lives easier contributes to society in a certain way. We use innovation to accelerate the energy transition process, something that society benefits from,” says Barber.
In fact, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the costs of electricity from new solar PV parks have decreased by 82% since 2010, mainly thanks to the increasing efficiency of PV panels. RatedPower’s proposal is functional to continue reducing the price of energy at a time when these costs are increasingly strategic for all industries and also for households.
Barber has been included among the 100 Spaniards under 42 years of age called to become the economic leaders by the Choiseul Ranking. His concept of an innovative person is very clear: “he has to want to be one in an active way. Ideas, except on very specific occasions, do not come alone, but must be sought. It is essential to have good ideas as a basis, but then you have to know how to transfer them to the public in the form of a product. Training is very important in this aspect: the innovator is self-made”.
