One-liner: the Ajuntament de València's innovation strategy and delivery arm (rebranded from Las Naves) — the single largest municipal hub of startup support in the city, running a nine-tool stack spanning testbeds, grants, accelerators, procurement, labs, public-private partnerships and international connections across eight priority sectors. Ratified 2026 as València's candidacy for European Capital of Innovation 2027.
What a founder gets
VIC organizes support into a nine-tool stack — deliberately access-first, not just funding:
- Valencia Urban Sandbox (program page) — free real-world testing rights over 100+ city resources/infrastructure, with a facilitator and municipal technical staff assigned.
- Proyectos Europeos — connects local startups/institutions into EU innovation projects and consortia.
- Retos de ciudad (City Challenges) — open municipal problem statements startups can pitch solutions against.
- Programas de aceleración — sector accelerators: VIC Gaming Accelerator, Defense Tech Accelerator, the planned Valencia Chip Boost (semiconductor talent, 2026).
- Laboratorios de innovación (Innovation Labs) — turns ideas into piloted solutions with municipal backing.
- CPI - Compra Publica Innovadora — Public Procurement of Innovation: the city itself becomes an innovation customer, buying pre-commercial solutions.
- Convenios público-privados — structured public-private partnership agreements for larger joint initiatives.
- Eventos y misiones inversas — reverse missions and events connecting global talent/investors to the city; the Valencia International Alliance is the flagship of this tool.
- Programas de inversión — VIC Startup Grants / VIC Innovation Grants 2026, direct grant funding up to €50k for strategic-growth projects.
- Talento y Formación — digital-talent training programmes (e.g. AI Skills for Employability, free with official certification).
- Physical home base at La Harinera (C/ Juan Verdeguer 30) for hub tenants including Valencia Game City; administrative HQ at the Edificio Las Naves (C/ Juan Verdeguer 16).
Who it's for
- Any phase, any sector in principle, but VIC organizes its sector work around eight priority verticals: govtech / public innovation & digital services, agrotech, immersive tech & gaming/XR, semiconductors, emergency/security/defence, sustainable tourism, urban tech (smart cities), and digital health & wellbeing.
- Idea-stage founders benefit most from the Sandbox (free real-world validation); growth/scale founders benefit most from the Investment Programmes and International Alliance reverse missions.
How to engage
- Open calls ("Convocatorias"): published on valenciainnovationcapital.com/convocatorias — live examples include PEIC 2026 (Port Entrepreneurship International Congress) and VDS+2026 startup delegation calls.
- General contact: hola@valenciainnovationcapital.com · +34 963 910 477.
- Two addresses: Edificio Las Naves, C/ Joan Verdeguer 16, 46024 València (admin HQ) — and Edificio La Harinera, C/ Joan Verdeguer 30, València (hub/coworking, hosts Valencia Game City and other tenants).
- Newsletter + Agenda on the site track upcoming events/trainings (e.g. WATERGRID workshop, Sales to Scale, ClimateLaunchpad 2026 National Final, EducAI Summer Bootcamp).
Key facts
- Formerly "Las Naves" (301-redirect per CLAUDE.md domain memory) — rebranded as Valencia Innovation Capital, the innovation strategy of the Ajuntament de València.
- 8 priority sectors (as listed above); 9-tool support stack (Sandbox, European Projects, City Challenges, Acceleration Programmes, Innovation Labs, CPI, Public-Private Partnerships, Events & Reverse Missions, Investment Programmes) plus Talent & Training and the International Alliance.
- 2 July 2026: the Ayuntamiento's Pleno unanimously ratified València's candidacy for European Capital of Innovation 2027 — a significant recent validation of VIC's strategy.
- 2 July 2026: news of VIC's tech-specialisation push around AI, photonics, space, and new international connections; a Silicon Valley mission (29 Jun 2026) presented the city's AI + tech-entrepreneurship strategy to leading AI companies, alongside adoption of València's first AI decálogo (ethical-use charter).
- 25 June 2026: Sandbox Urbano extended into the port environment via a "strategic alliance" with the port authority — evidence of the Sandbox's active expansion (relevant context for Valenciaport Sandbox).
- 3 July 2026: VIC announced completion of four GovTech pilots improving public services (news item live on
the homepage as of 2026-07-05; no dedicated GovTech program page yet —
#status/verifyfor specifics). - "Programación 2026" PDF (downloaded 2026-07-05,
raw/documents/valencia-innovation-capital-programacion-2026.pdf) is now the authoritative source for VIC's full 2026 roster: 10 acceleration tracks (Seed Startup, Early Stage, Agro·lab, Ciberseguridad, GovTech/Gobe, Impacto Inclusivo e IA, Semiconductores, Emergencias y Tecnologías Duales, Financiación y Publishing en Videojuegos, The Break), 10 TALENT training tracks, the International Alliance 8-stop global roadshow (4YFN, Latitude59, South Summit, Vivatech, F'talks, Smart City Barcelona, Web Summit, Slush), a Women in Tech pillar, >€3M in 2026 subvenciones across 5 lines (Eventos Concurrencia Competitiva €500k, Eventos Estratégicos €650k, Startups Growth €1M, VLC Startup Awards €60k, Proyectos de Innovación €1M — the last is VIC Innovation Grants 2026; the other four are not yet individually wiki-ingested), and Open Innovation programs (Techstars Startup Weekend, ClimateLaunchpad, Hackathon de Movilidad, Hackathon de Defensa). - Contact re-verification (2026-07-05): a live event page (14 May 2026 semiconductor breakfast) confirms both
known contacts current: Paula Llobet Vilarrasa — "Concejala de Turismo, Innovación, Tecnología, Agenda Digital
y Captación de Inversiones" (title match). Arturo Castelló García — titled "Subdirector general de València
Innovation Capital" on this source, vs. the wiki's prior "Managing Director (Director-Gerente)"; same person,
senior VIC leadership confirmed live either way, but exact title should be reconciled (
#status/verify). The "Quiénes somos" page itself lists no team member names or titles — VIC does not publish a staff directory; contact confirmations must come from event/news pages instead. - Runs recurring flagship events: OWN Festival (esports/gaming, 20,000+ attendees), ClimateLaunchpad national final, and multiple sector agrotech initiatives (Agro·lab ToNoWaste, València Food Lab — launched 15 Jun 2026 to position the city as a European food-innovation reference).
- Contact channels: hola@valenciainnovationcapital.com · +34 963 910 477 · C/ Joan Verdeguer 16-24 & 30, 46024 València.
Pipeline — programmes VIC has announced for 2026 #status/verify
(Recorded 2026-09-08 from Valencia Plaza's write-up of VIC's 2026 plan. These are announced intent, not open calls — none had a published convocatoria at the time of capture. Their value is forward notice: a founder in these verticals should be positioning now, and the scan should watch for the convocatorias landing.)
| Programme | What it is | Sector |
|---|---|---|
| València Chip Boost | Accelerator for deeptech startups | semiconductors, advanced hardware, photonics |
| Seed Semiconductor Grants | Seed funding for early technological validation | semiconductors |
| Semiconductor Start | University spinoff creation and growth (knowledge transfer) | semiconductors |
| Defense Tech Accelerator | Dual-use tech for security, emergencies and defence | cybersecurity, drones, sensors, AI, autonomous systems |
| HealthLab VIC | Digital health, wellness and AI acceleration | prevention, active ageing |
| GovTech initiatives | Public innovation challenges + urban sandbox validation | pre-commercial public innovation |
- Infrastructure: the València Semiconductor Hub, housed at the 46 Mediterranean Tech Hub, is the physical pole these semiconductor lines hang off.
- Budget signal: a total annual allocation of €7.9M, of which €3M is personnel — so roughly €4.9M of programme money across the slate. Treat as indicative.
- This slate explains the VLC Startup Awards 2026 category list — GovTech, Agrotech, Digital Health, Semiconductors, Emergency/Security/Defence, Immersive Tech & Gaming, Urban Tech and Sustainable Tourism are the same strategic areas. The prize categories are a preview of where the city intends to put programme money.
- ⚠️ Do not take personnel details from this source — its named-roles block pre-dates the 17 June 2026 leadership change and is stale. The current holder and predecessor are recorded on the relevant private person page; date the article before letting it touch any personnel record.
Relations
- Runs: València Music City
- Runs: València Music City Ayudas
- Runs: Valencia Urban Sandbox
- Runs: Valencia Urban Sandbox (Program)
- Runs: VIC Startup Grants
- Runs: VIC Innovation Grants 2026
- Runs: VIC Innovation Prizes 2026
- Runs: VLC Startup Awards 2026
- Runs: VIC Gaming Accelerator
- Runs: VIC Gaming Accelerator (Program)
- Runs: Valencia Chip Boost
- Runs: Valencia Chip Boost (Program)
- Runs: Defense Tech Accelerator
- Runs: Defense Tech Accelerator (Program)
- Runs: CPI - Compra Publica Innovadora
- Runs: CPI - Compra Publica Innovadora (Program)
- Runs: Valencia International Alliance
- Runs: Valencia International Alliance (Program)
- Runs: Invest in Valencia
- Runs: La Harinera
- Runs: La Harinera (VIC)
- Runs: Valencia Game City
- Runs: VLCi Open Data Valencia
- Partners with: Cybersecurity Startup Program
- Partners with: Cybersecurity Startup Program (Program)
- Partners with: GSIC
- Partners with: 4iCV
- Partners with: Womenalia
- Partners with: Proyecto FUTURA
- See also: Estrategia Urbana Valencia 2030
- See also: Ayuntamiento de Valencia
- See also: Tourism (niche)
- See also: Valenciaport Sandbox