Santander X 100 reaches 400 high-growth companies in key sectors

The community brings together the leading companies that Banco Santander promotes through Santander X.

These companies create thousands of jobs and operate in over 20 sectors.

In 2025, Santander X supported some 60,000 entrepreneurs and businesses in 10 countries (up 12% on the previous year).

Madrid, 8 June 2026.
Santander X 100, the community of startups, scaleups and SMEs that Banco Santander created through its global platform Santander X,  has reached 400 high-growth companies from 11 countries. These countries specialize in such strategic sectors as artificial intelligence, software development, sustainability, cybersecurity, digital health, and industry 4.0.

Over 191 startups, 156 scaleups and 49 SMEs make up the lion’s share of this exclusive community for high-impact businesses that create thousands of jobs in key sectors of the new economy. 

The companies that comprise Santander X 100 were selected from the thousands of international applicants to the challenges, awards and other programmes that the bank organizes, and stood out for their innovative capacity, scalability, and potential to address the challenges that today’s world poses.

Many have received private investment, grown internationally, and formed strategic partnerships in sectors where investor demand is high.

Among the most represented sectors in Santander X 100 are sustainability (72 companies), eHealth (64), fintech/insurtech (46), software development (47), edtech (28), and cybersecurity (16), which speaks to the main global trends in innovation and economic transformation.

An international innovation network

Santander X 100 was born out of Santander X, Banco Santander’s global platform that has built one of the leading international entrepreneur support systems among banks. In 2025 alone, it helped almost 60,000 startups, scaleups, SMEs and entrepreneurial projects in 10 countries (up 12% on the previous year) through training, challenges, awards, benefits, events, and tailored financial solutions.

In recent years, over 5,500 businesses (Santander customers and non-customers) have taken part in eight international contests to address challenges in healthcare, education, customer experience, employability, digitalization, and sustainability.

In 2025, close to 1,000 took part in the global challenges that the bank runs and that awarded over 240,000 euros in prizes, not to mention access to investment, larger companies’ expertise, and international business networks.

The most recent contests brought to the fore two major structural challenges: the ageing population and the transition to a circular economy.  The latest Santander X initiative is the global challenge Santander X Global Challenge | The Quantum AI Leap, which seeks projects that can apply two technologies that are set to reshape the coming decade — quantum computing and artificial intelligence — to strategic sectors such as finance, energy, healthcare, logistics, and cybersecurity.

Santander and its support for education, employability and entrepreneurship

Banco Santander has been a pioneering stalwart of education, employability and entrepreneurship for 30 years, standing out among the world's financial institutions. Santander has deployed over €2.5 billion and supported more than 8.3 million people and businesses through agreements with nearly 1,000 universities www.santander.com/universities).