“We want to continue evolving and improving our product, services and the value proposition we make to our customers. Awesome Lab has proven to be an essential tool for this and, in order to delve deeper into the business model and co-creation, we have decided to evolve our model to be able to access more startups during the months of the project and attract those with which we can develop concept tests in a short period of time,” explained Alberto Ojinaga, CEO of the firm.Desigual has partnered with Wayra, Telefónica’s open innovation hub, in order to find new startups at a more advanced stage. The main objective will be to develop solutions that can have a positive impact on the industry and respond to the needs of the current global context and new consumer trends, in order to improve user experience, circularity and data analysis.

“At Wayra we have been bringing startup innovation to Telefónica and its customers for more than 10 years and we are delighted to be able to transfer this experience to Desigual to promote its Awesome Lab project and make startups have a real impact on the company’s business and cultural transformation,” said Marta Antúnez, director of Wayra Barcelona.Specifically, in this edition, three different searches will be carried out to find the startups that best fit the challenges set by the company. The first of them, already underway, consists of giving visibility to marketing campaigns or recruitment of companies and will conclude with the selection of five startups, which will be announced in the coming weeks.For this second edition, Desigual aspires “not to limit the number of startups that can be part of Awesome Lab,” said Eva Sirera, Desigual’s director of technological innovation. “We would like to offer an even more open and flexible program that also allows us to incorporate knowledge throughout the year”.Founded by Thomas Meyer in 1984, Desigual has more than 2,600 employees and is present in 109 countries through a network of 393 single-brand stores and 10 sales channels, with six different product categories: woman, man, kids, accessories, shoes and sport. According to its latest financial results, the Barcelona-based company recorded a turnover of 371 million euros in 2021, up 3.4% year-on-year.