Dcycle: technology to measure, improve and lead in sustainability

The “Coffee with entrepreneurs” initiative of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation brings you closer to leaders of the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem to learn first-hand about their trajectories and learnings.

Our latest Coffee was with Juanjo Mestre, CEO and co-founder of Dcycle, a startup that is revolutionizing the way companies manage their sustainability and non-financial compliance data using advanced technology.
In his chat with José Carlos Huerta, our Director of the Startups Program, Juanjo shares his personal experience, the challenges of entrepreneurship in such a regulated sector and the opportunities offered by a world where sustainability is key to competitiveness.

Here you can see the Coffee with Juanjo Mestre:

Coffee with Juanjo Mestre – CEO Dcycle

Below, we summarize the coffee with Juanjo Mestre:

From audiovisual innovation to technological sustainability: the path of Juanjo Mestre

Juanjo Mestre’s journey to founding Dcycle is as innovative as his project. Unlike other profiles of traditional entrepreneurs, Juanjo did not follow a conventional academic path. He barely spent a year at university before joining the job market directly, immersing himself in the world of audiovisual innovation.

His first professional contact was in the creation of new content distribution models, working on branded content projects and transmedia narratives for large public and private channels in Spain, as well as for several in Latin America. This early stage allowed him to understand first-hand how technology could transform traditional sectors.

It was in this context that he discovered a field that at that time was barely known in Spain: user experience (UX) design and interaction design. While in the United States these disciplines were already a standard, in our country they were just beginning to be explored. Juanjo deepened his training in these areas, complementing it later with studies in philosophy. This combination of critical thinking and sensitivity to user experience would be a constant in their professional evolution.

After several years working in innovation and consulting for other companies, Juanjo detected an emerging trend that would mark his future: coherent consumption. Increasingly, consumers and companies began to value ethical and sustainable aspects in their purchasing decisions and in their business model. Juanjo identified that, at the same time that consumer behaviour was changing, new demands were emerging for companies in terms of non-financial information.

From this need to make the management of the environmental and social impact of organizations more accessible and efficient, Dcycle was born: a startup designed to put technology at the service of business sustainability.

What is Dcycle and what problem does it solve?

Dcycle is a technology platform that allows companies to easily and efficiently manage all their non-financial data. Although the term may sound abstract, Juanjo Mestre explains it in a very concrete way: it is all the data that organizations need to report and use to evaluate their performance in areas that are not strictly financial, such as environmental sustainability, social impact, human resources, ISO certifications or regulatory compliance.

Traditionally, this type of information has been managed in a dispersed, inefficient and unstructured way. For many companies, especially medium-sized ones, collecting sustainability data and reporting it involved manual efforts, fragmented processes, and a large investment of time and resources. In addition, the lack of homogenization made the quality of the data irregular and made it difficult to compare or analyze strategically.

Dcycle solves these problems with an all-in-one solution that encompasses four essential phases:

• Data capture: connects with the company’s internal systems (ERP, CRM, spreadsheets, etc.) to automatically collect relevant data.
• Transformation: converts this data into homologated metrics, allowing them to be understandable and comparable.
• Information governance: ensures the traceability, quality, and consistency of the data reported.
• Smart exploitation: allows you to generate sustainability reports, respond to audits, present indicators to customers or investors and make strategic decisions based on real data.

Dcycle’s platform is already used by more than 1,500 companies in Europe, demonstrating the growing need for such tools.

Moreover, Dcycle is not limited to regulatory compliance. While many companies initially turn to its technology to adapt to new regulations such as the CSRD Directive, its real added value is to enable companies to work more efficiently and competitively in their transition to a sustainable business model.

As Juanjo Mestre points out, today no organization can afford to manage its sustainability information as if it were something accessory or improvised. In the same way that no one conceives of a company without a clear and standardized financial balance, the future will require perfectly structured and traceable non-financial data.

In this sense, Dcycle acts as a key infrastructure for companies that want to comply with regulatory requirements and be leaders in the new business environment driven by sustainability, transparency and efficiency in the use of data.

Regulation as an opportunity: the CSRD and its impact

One of the big drivers driving the adoption of solutions like Dcycle in Europe is the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This standard, approved by the European Union, significantly expands the non-financial reporting obligations for companies.

Until now, only companies with more than 250 employees were required to report certain non-financial information under current legislation (transposed in Spain in 2018). However, the CSRD extends this requirement to many more companies, including medium-sized organizations and, in later stages, even SMEs operating in sensitive sectors or within relevant supply chains.

The new directive increases the number of companies required to report and also raises the level of detail and quality required in reporting. Companies will have to provide data that is structured, comparable, auditable and based on common European standards. This requirement poses a huge challenge for organizations that do not have adequate systems for capturing and managing non-financial data.

However, as Juanjo Mestre points out, this regulatory environment should not be seen only as a burden, but as a great opportunity. Companies that prepare proactively will be able to use sustainability as a differentiator and gain competitive positions in the market.

In addition, although the omnibus package approved in February 2024 has temporarily relaxed some of the strictest requirements of the CSRD, the underlying direction does not change: increasingly, sustainability and transparency in non-financial performance will be key to accessing financing, attracting talent, closing public or private contracts, and maintaining a good corporate reputation.

Dcycle is positioned precisely to help businesses navigate this transition efficiently. Thanks to its technology, organizations can digitize their environmental management, ensure data traceability, and adapt to new standards without the need to multiply their resources or complicate their operations.

Juanjo Mestre’s vision is clear: companies that integrate a good non-financial data management strategy today will build a sustainable competitive advantage in the long term.

Efficiency as a true driver of transformation

Although the new European regulation has accelerated the demand for non-financial data management solutions, Juanjo Mestre insists on a key point: the real driver of transformation in companies is not regulatory compliance, but efficiency.

Today, many companies do not manage their sustainability data in an integrated way. Each area (environment, compliance, human resources, quality) works in isolation, generating dispersed and poorly traceable information. This is a huge drain on time and resources, as well as a constant source of inefficiencies and risks.

According to Juanjo, no one today imagines asking a company for its financial statement and receiving a set of incoherent or non-standardized data. However, that is still the case with non-financial information. Dcycle was created precisely to correct this anomaly: to provide companies with a platform that allows them to work on their sustainability data with the same rigor and efficiency with which they manage their accounts.

By integrating data capture, transformation, governance, and exploitation, Dcycle, in addition to facilitating compliance with regulations such as CSRD, enables organizations to:

• Improve their ability to analyze and make strategic decisions based on real data.
• Save human and financial resources by automating processes that would otherwise be manual and costly.
• Respond in an agile way to the multiple information requirements that today’s clients, investors, administrations and international certifications demand.
• Build a solid foundation of traceable data that, in the future, will be critical for applying emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

In the words of Juanjo Mestre: “We sell efficiency. We want our customers to work smarter, not harder.”

This vision places Dcycle as a strategic tool for the operational transformation and competitive improvement of companies in the new context of sustainability and digitalization.

Sustainability and competitiveness: two sides of the same coin

One of the most powerful messages that Juanjo Mestre leaves us in his talk is that, in today’s business world, sustainability and competitiveness are inseparable.

Increasingly, a company’s ability to operate in certain markets, close contracts or attract financing depends on its income statement, but also on its sustainability performance. And this is not a passing fad. It is a structural trend that is already affecting key sectors such as industry, construction, energy, food and finance.

Mestre explains how companies working in B2B are forced to report sustainability data to their customers. Those that tender public contracts must also include this information as part of the requirements. Even investors and venture capital funds are starting to demand reliable and auditable ESG (environmental, social and governance) metrics before betting on a company.

In this environment, sustainability is a lever for access to business.

In addition, Juanjo Mestre warns of a trend that will increase: the integration of sustainability data within business risk analysis and financial performance metrics. It will become increasingly common for factors such as carbon emissions, diversity or waste management to have a direct impact on a company’s valuation.

From this perspective, being sustainable is no longer a philanthropic option, it is a strategic issue. And those who understand it first will have a key advantage.

Data infrastructure as the foundation for the future of business

One of the most interesting points that Juanjo Mestre shares during his speech is a fundamental reflection: the future of companies will depend on their ability to properly structure and govern their non-financial data.

Today we talk a lot about the potential of artificial intelligence in business. But, as Juanjo stresses, without a quality, traceable and structured database, all the power of AI remains in promises.

The transition to a data-driven business model requires:

• Collect the right information from the source, not improvised.
• Ensure that this data is homogeneous, auditable and comparable over time.
• Manage them efficiently, guaranteeing their traceability.
• Exploit them to improve strategic decision-making, identify risks and opportunities, and anticipate regulatory or market changes.

Dcycle provides precisely this infrastructure: a well-structured sustainability data layer that can be scaled and combined with new technologies such as advanced analytics or artificial intelligence.

In an environment where speed of adaptation is crucial, companies that invest today in building a robust non-financial data architecture will be much better positioned to lead in the future.

For Juanjo Mestre, sustainability, efficiency and digital transformation are not three different strategies. They are the same strategy, seen from different angles.

On this path towards a more strategic and data-driven sustainability, technological innovation plays a fundamental role. For Dcycle, the relationship with technology – and especially with artificial intelligence – is direct and daily.

Juanjo Mestre explains that the way of building companies has changed radically in recent years. Thanks to technological advances, today a small team can be much more efficient, developing more personalized and scalable products and services. What was once a six-month project, can now be solved in 15 minutes with a first iteration.

This agility allows Dcycle to offer solutions much more adapted to the specific needs of each client, exploiting data in a deep way to anticipate trends and optimize strategic decisions. For example, they help companies identify the best financial time to invest in impact actions such as the installation of solar panels, cross-referencing non-financial information and market data.

From a personal point of view, both Juanjo and José Carlos recognize that today they cannot conceive of working without artificial intelligence tools. They compare them to having a “permanent consultant” who brings valuable information, summaries, reports and analysis that would otherwise require hours of manual searching.

According to Juanjo, we are experiencing a new wave of ultra-productivity, comparable to the transformation brought about by the arrival of email or the internet 25 years ago. Only now, change will be even faster and more profound, driven by Moore’s Law and the exponential acceleration of technology.

For Dcycle, being one of the leading companies in the adoption and distribution of these new tools is a competitive advantage and the basis of its growth model and its value proposition for an increasingly demanding market.

Entrepreneurship: well-being, purpose and wealth creation

Before giving way to questions from the audience, José Carlos Huerta asks Juanjo Mestre one last question: what advice would he give to other entrepreneurs who are starting out in the world of startups?

Juanjo’s answer is clear and direct: “burn the bridges”. In his experience, committing 100% to the project, without a plan B, was one of the keys to Dcycle’s success. Knowing that there was no turning back gave them the energy and focus needed to move the company forward.

Another fundamental piece of advice she shares is to take care of mental and physical well-being. For the three co-founders of Dcycle, this aspect is considered a strategic asset. Sleeping well, eating healthily and exercising regularly are not luxuries, but essential requirements to be able to perform at your best. Personal productivity, he points out, improves enormously when the body and mind are taken care of.

In addition, Juanjo stresses the importance of being aware of the true impact of entrepreneurship: creating employment, generating wealth and contributing to building a better society. It fully coincides with the Bankinter Innovation Foundation’s purpose of promoting the creation of sustainable wealth through innovation and entrepreneurship.

Finally, he highlights an inspiring aspect: seeing how employees who have grown up within startups become new entrepreneurs, multiplying the positive impact on the economy and society. For Juanjo, there is no better indicator of a company’s success than seeing its former members build their own projects and continue to promote the ecosystem.

“Creating companies, generating employment, distributing wealth: so far, it is the best formula we know to build a more resilient and prosperous society,” he concludes.

Questions Answers

During the “Coffee with Entrepreneurs”, Juanjo Mestre answers some questions from the audience. These are the main reflections he shares:

Do you use artificial intelligence to make recommendations for improvement or do you offer personalized consulting?

Both. At Dcycle, technology and data analytics allow trends and patterns to be extracted very quickly, but human support is still essential. Artificial intelligence multiplies the capacity for analysis, but the understanding of complex contexts still requires human intervention. Humanism, Juanjo explains, will become increasingly important.

How far in the supply chain (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3) can your analysis go?

Dcycle’s analysis capabilities are endless. The platform allows information to be traced to all levels of suppliers (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3…), as long as suppliers are willing to collaborate and integrate into the system. The better a company has a relationship with its suppliers, the greater the traceability that can be achieved.

How long does it take for a client to understand and adapt their data structure within Dcycle?

The initial process usually lasts between three and four weeks, during which time an in-depth analysis of the company is carried out: corporate structure, information systems and processes. However, the accompaniment is continuous. Each client has a “champion” – an internal reference who uses the platform – and always has the support of a Dcycle consultant to answer questions or propose strategies.

Where is the data that companies entrust to Dcycle stored? Are they shared with third parties?

No, data is not shared. Each client company has its own private encrypted cloud and fully controls who accesses what information. In addition, Dcycle is certified under the ISO 27001 cybersecurity standard and follows the National Security Scheme. The data is processed by algorithms and stored on servers located in the European Union.

What practices does Dcycle follow to ensure the success of its customers in adopting the platform?

Dcycle’s approach is flexible and adaptive. Each company is assigned periodic support sessions – monthly, fortnightly or bimonthly, depending on the need. The aim is to ensure commitment, collect feedback and adapt to changes in ESG sustainability strategies. Juanjo points out that Dcycle adapts to the company and not the other way around, unlike other large corporate software.

The sustainable revolution is already underway. Startups like Dcycle lead the way to a more competitive, efficient and responsible business future. Are you joining the change?

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