LLYC Venturing, the company of LLYC SA (BME:LLYC), has made its first investment in Erudit for an amount of 200,000 euros (over 208,000 US dollars) that has developed artificial intelligence technology that empowers companies to improve talent management and retention through people analytics based on real-time data.

Erudit, a Spanish startup now with headquarters in Miami, Florida, has been awarded by Banco Santander and the European University with the ‘Best Young Social Enterprise’ award in 2018. Supported by IBM and Wayra, Telefónica's startup accelerator, from its inception, Erudit has successfully closed several rounds of funding. Founders Alejandro Martínez Agenjo, a psychologist, engineer, and entrepreneur, and Ricardo Michel Reyes, an AI savant, now lead a team of 30 individuals to continue development of the AI software and to bring the innovative solution to the US market.

For Adolfo Corujo, CEO of Deep Digital Business at the firm, and member of LLYC Venturing's investment committee: "Erudit is a perfect fit for our project. This is the first investment, but we are already working to add more. We want to improve LLYC Venturing’s competitive position in the future and strengthen our commitment to innovation and exponential technologies to provide clients the solutions they need."

"LLYC is at the cutting-edge of communication with a hunger for disruptive technology. They have very interesting internal developments in data modeling and artificial intelligence so there is a clear opportunity for joint value creation in fields where we both operate, such as M&A, culture and engagement, internal communication, and reputational risk control," say Erudit's founders.

LLYC Venturing is a corporate venture initiative led by LLYC aimed at investing in early-stage technology-based communication startups. It plans to invest up to a maximum of 5 million euros (over 5.2 million US dollars) in 20 projects over the next 4 years, between 50,000 and 500,000 euros (52,000 to 521,000 US dollars) in each of them.

The companies in which LLYC Venturing wants to invest are in the following sectors: software for digital marketing, artificial intelligence focused on communication and marketing, blockchain firms that allow transformative communication, IoT (Internet of Things) that improve human and machine communication, and virtual reality companies that help improve immersive experiences.