Bringing tech home: How two friends are making sure innovation doesn’t skip a generation

Last updated on Thursday, 12/06/2025

When one thinks of the EU, there are many things that come to mind: an improbable union of cultures, a milieu of languages, a regulatory giant. However, in terms of technological innovation, we seem to always be one step behind our American or Chinese neighbours; they have all the big companies, all the innovative tech. Well, what do we have?

During the past few years, the EU has witnessed an explosion of small tech companies and start-ups, launched by thousands of young, hungry, brilliant minds in every member state. From the now well-established, worldwide-known Bolt or Vinted to promising new names like Escape or Dott; all around Europe, creative ideas are turning into full-fledged projects.

In the sunny city of Zaragoza, Spain, two friends have managed to combine this eagerness to create meaningful change with the need to help those most vulnerable: our grandparents.

Maximiliana was born from a mundane issue every international student has had to deal with. When Jorge Terreu moved to Lyon for his Erasmus, it soon proved harder than expected to keep in contact with his grandma, Maximiliana (hence the name of the company). She simply could not manage to answer calls from her grandson, nor text him back and would get frustrated at not understanding all the icons and messages displayed on the screen. As a software engineering student, Jorge was not disheartened and began designing a specialised phone which, rather than being her grandmother’s nightmare, would be her ally.

This is how the Maximiliana phone first came into existence in 2019. A regular smartphone on the outside, its software is designed to provide all essential functions of a normal phone in a simplified, easy-to-use manner. Its screen lights up automatically when picked by the user, incoming calls can be answered automatically, and calls can be made simply by clicking on the icon of the contact’s face. Moreover, all the settings are managed through a complementary app on the phone of one of the relatives of the user. Not only was his prototype a success in the hands of Jorge’s grandma, but soon enough, the people around him began to take an interest in that odd mobile phone that seemed to make life easier. It would be his donation of five of those phones to the Clinic Hospital of Zaragoza in 2020, when COVID and lockdowns became the norm, that would chart Maximiliana’s course.

Local media discovered the donation and covered the story, which eventually led to a funding offer from an investor. Jorge and Pedro Malo Perisé, his classmate at the time, who had been informally helping him develop the prototype until that point, suddenly found themselves no longer with a personal anecdote but a self-standing enterprise. “It was a snowball effect”, recalls Pedro, now CTO (Chief Technology Officer), as we speak on a videocall in March 2025.

In the last four years, “Maxi”, as he affectionately calls it, has considerably grown. It now has almost twelve thousand users, most of them in Spain but some in other EU countries or even in Latin America. They have also won several awards, and the actress Maria Galiana, known as “Spain’s grandmother” for her role as Herminia in the TV show Cuéntame, starred in their Christmas publicity campaign. Looking to the future, the company is not only focused on increasing its number of users in Spain but also potentially expanding to other markets. Although Maximiliana currently only works in Spanish, this will not be the case for much longer: “It is in our roadmap to translate the system”, recognises Pedro.

Actress Maria Galiana in Maximiliana’s campaign “Gracias por llamarme”

Just like them, there are thousands of young entrepreneurs trying to make their way in the European business landscape. The 2024 State of European Tech Report showed that there are over 35.000 startups based in Europe. Still, challenges persist: youngsters struggle to find the means to stop walking the path created by others and make their own. As the Maximiliana project took its first unsure steps, both Jorge and Pedro kept their full-time jobs at a big tech company in Zaragoza and tried to balance the two. “I remember it as a horrible time,” says Pedro, “I worked like 14 hours per day”. When they finally decided to quit and focus all their energy on Maximiliana, it felt like a leap of faith. “My parents almost killed me when they heard,” Pedro laughs.

In recent years, the European Union has put in place many initiatives meant to help young entrepreneurs begin their adventure. Not only is there the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs or the Young Entrepreneurs Organization of the European Union, but there are many collaboration projects between universities and young companies financed by the EU NextGeneration Fund. It is through a partnership with the University of Zaragoza that Maximiliana is developing its newest product: an IoT (Internet-of-Things) bracelet with an emergency button that can be used outside of the house and with a long-lasting battery. According to Pedro, the project entails such an economic and resource sacrifice that a start-up could not have assumed on its own. “If it has been possible to do it, it has been thanks to this programme”.

Image by Startaê Team/Unsplash

Still, he warns against the dangers of making “free money” the main tool of assistance for young entrepreneurs. “The first step should be to remove obstacles,” he argues. The Union should focus on streamlining and simplifying administrative issues to lessen the regulatory burden; a burden that for many small and medium enterprises is practically impossible to bear. Indeed, statistics show that 1 in 5 start-ups in Europe fail during their first year.  When remembering his first steps in dealing with European regulation, Pedro cannot help but frown: “For a small company like us, it was like being crushed”.

In Zaragoza, Jorge still regularly visits and calls with his grandmother, now 92. He and Pedro go every day to the office to meet the other 10 people who now make up the Maximiliana team and think of ways in which the company can continue to support our elders.

For many years to come, Maximiliana hopes to be the thread connecting thousands of families. Like them, many young entrepreneurs are working at this very moment towards creating a better future.

If Europe keeps cultivating a space where these fresh, ingenious initiatives are allowed to grow to their full potential, can you imagine what our lives could look like?

I, for one, cannot wait to see it.

Young Journalists in Europe - Meet the author

Ángela Garrido Rivera

“As I finish my EU Competition Law Master I see the European Youth Portal as the perfect scenario to combine my fascination for EU affairs with my biggest passion: storytelling.”

Article collaborators: Efe Yalabikoglu, Guilherme Alexandre Jorge (Lexi), Reyyan Beyza Aydın

This article reflects the views of the authors only. The European Commission and Eurodesk cannot be held responsible for it.