StartupsJuly 27, 2020By Itnig Startup Ecosystem

Startup ecosystem in Barcelona 2020

Barcelona is known by many for its association with Gaudí, Picasso and many other outstanding thinkers, artists and architects. However, Barcelona has become a benchmark for entrepreneurship, innovation and one of the tech and startup ecosystems with the greatest potential worldwide.

City of Barcelona

Barcelona

Table of contents:

The startup ecosystem in Barcelona
Investment: early-stage funds, venture capital funds
Incubators and accelerators
Main and developing sectors
The city’s most well-known startups
Networking and events
Training and programmes for development and talent
Coworking spaces
Living in Barcelona

The ecosystem in Barcelona

This city offers plenty of opportunities. With an ecosystem in constant evolution, Barcelona creates a competitive environment and a great hub in a strategic location. It’s one of the most dynamic and attractive ecosystems in Europe, made up of an incredible combination of investors, accelerators, incubators and talent. Catalunya’s startup economy employs more than 13,500 people, and in Barcelona alone there are more than 1,500 startups. The value of the ecosystem has grown to over $6.5 billion.

Barcelona ranks sixth in the top 100 emerging ecosystems in the 2020 edition of “The Global Startup Ecosystem Report”:

Top 100 emerging ecosystems

The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020

What does this ranking take into account? The blue factor measures performance, yellow means funding, green refers to market reach, and red marks each ecosystem’s level of talent.

Barcelona is among the best tech and innovation hubs in Europe, after London, Berlin, and Paris. In 2018, Barcelona became the first city in the world to implement a science and technology diplomacy strategy.

SciTech DiploHub is a pioneering non-profit public-private association backed by startups, corporations, universities, research centres, organisations and public institutions in Barcelona. The organisation designs and executes the international strategy for the city’s innovation ecosystem. This initiative is led by SciTech DiploHub’s CEO, Alexis Roig, a serial entrepreneur who works to represent the city’s innovation ecosystem around the world. – Interview with Alexis Roig on the itnig podcast

More points in its favour:

Barcelona is one of the leading EU cities with 5 million inhabitants
Catalunya’s university system is recognised as the third best in the world.
According to Mobile World Capital, Barcelona hosts more than 35% of Spain’s startups.
The second largest business hub in the EU offers excellent connections to Asia and Latin America.
It hosts leading EU facilities, such as world-class research centres, laboratories, the CNAG, Synchrotron Alba and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

Investment in Barcelona’s ecosystem

Catalunya is the most attractive region in Spain for investment. Barcelona accounts for over 65% of startup investment in the whole country. Entrepreneurs in Barcelona have access to a wide list of investors and venture capital funds.

Barcelona is in the top 10 emerging ecosystems with the highest early-stage investment, according to The Global Startup Ecosystem Report.

startup investment barcelona

Early-stage investment by ecosystem

Early-stage funds

At Itnig we invest in teams with ambition, talent, motivation and great ideas. We look for talented teams with vision and solutions to today’s challenges. If you’re looking for funding and have a project you believe can change the world.

Check out Itnig’s investment fund!

SeedRocket 4Founders Capital invests between €30,000 and €50,000 in seed investments.
Lanai Partners is a group of entrepreneur-partners who invest in teams and entrepreneurs with future potential. The main partners are Jeroen Merchiers, Ruben Ferreiro, Guillermo Llibre and Mar Alarcon. They invest up to €200,000 per startup across several rounds.
Lanzame Capital is a pledge fund; it helps entrepreneurs find investors for their projects, as well as helping investors find projects to invest in.
Meridia Capital is a Spanish leader in alternative fund management across two focus areas: real estate and private equity.
Smartech Capital is made up of a group of professionals with more than 50 years of combined experience in entrepreneurship, venture capital and corporate finance.
Inveready is one of the Spanish leaders in early-stage funds.

Venture capital funds

Incubators and accelerators

Accelerator and incubator programmes help entrepreneurs achieve their goals, surround themselves with the right people, and make the most of mentorship. Here’s a list of Barcelona’s most active programmes:

Antai Venture Builder: focuses on ecommerce projects, vertical digitally-native brands, marketplace and SaaS. They’ve helped launch companies like Wallapop, Deliberry and BePretty.
BarcelonaTech City: its goal is to make Barcelona one of the most powerful tech hubs. It’s promoting tech projects, helping develop ideas and solutions within the tech industries.
Conector: has worked with entrepreneurs for more than 7 years, focused on growing startups from very early stages. We interviewed Carlos Blanco, one of Conector’s mentors, on our podcast.
Demium Startups: a startup incubator based in Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Malaga and Valencia. Demium helps entrepreneurs build working teams and develop ideas from scratch. To learn more about Demium, check out the interview with Jorge Dobón on our podcast, where he explains everything about an incubator’s business development.
Founder Institute: has helped launch more than 3,500 companies. It was founded in 2009 by Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan.
IMPACT: a group of accelerators, capital funds, and global brands. IMPACT has taken part in projects like 8fit, GlampingHub and Situm.
IQS Tech Factory: offers consulting and support to funds and entrepreneurs specialising in the tech industry.
LaSalle Technova: one of the most important incubators in Europe, focused on innovative technology.
Nuclio: a venture builder that creates and develops startups from the business idea all the way to a real company. For more information about Nuclio and its founder, Carlos Blanco: check out the interview we did with him on our podcast.
SeedRocket4FounderCapital: offers a workspace for startups to share and create new entrepreneurial ideas.
Ship2B: a startup accelerator that promotes entrepreneurship and positive social impact.

Main sectors in Barcelona

The main sectors in the Catalan city are Smart City Technologies, biotech/pharma, and gaming.

Smart City Technologies

Smart City Technologies brings information technology and data to the development of public services that improve residents’ quality of life. There are more than 270 Smart City companies in the region, employing an average of 116,000 people, with approximate annual revenue of $8.2 billion. Barcelona hosts the Smart City Expo World Congress.

The main Smart City subsectors present in Catalunya are:

Mobility
Lighting
Smart tourism
Security
Waste management
E-Gov
Facilities management
Natural environment

However, the most important subsectors correspond to tech solutions for waste management, mobility and lighting, with very successful companies like WeSmartPark, Datumize and Immfly.

Biotech and pharma

Now more than ever with COVID19, startups focused on the pharma and biotech sector face major challenges and find a thousand opportunities to innovate and contribute. Catalunya has a high number of research centres and laboratories, as well as access to universities and tech science centres like PCB and PRB.

If you have a startup focused on the health sector, we recommend checking out Barcelona Health Hub!

Gaming

Catalunya is home to more than 120 gaming startups, employing more than 1,600 people. Barcelona hosts the headquarters of Ubisoft, Gameloft, Social Point, King and other major players.

Sectors showing great development in Catalunya:

Green economy and sustainability solutions.
Industry 4.0, which enables the development of our current industries through new technologies.
Greener solutions that promote responsible management and strategically sustainable tourism.
Trade and steady development of economic growth in services and goods.

Some of Barcelona’s most well-known startups

Glovo

An emerging Spanish delivery company with an international presence. It handles the purchase, pickup and delivery of orders in under an hour through independent couriers known as “glovers”. You can find its whole story in our interview with Oscar Pierre, CEO and founder.

TravelPerk

A tech startup that offers all booking, purchasing, cancellation, invoicing and customer service, as well as helping structure budgets for business travel, etc. It has raised more than €52 million in funding. We interviewed co-founder and CPO Javier Suárez on our podcast.

Onna

Develops a cloud document search engine for companies, has raised up to €25 million and is part of Atomico’s portfolio.

Typeform

Aims to modernise a product as traditional as online forms. It’s a business that reaches more than €10 million. We interviewed Pol Narbona, Product Owner.

Badi

It’s the Tinder of room and shared flat searches. The free app helps you find a room in a shared house or rent out a room you’re not using. Check out the interview with CEO and founder Carlos Pierre.

Red Points

A startup that has developed a platform allowing brands to detect and remove counterfeits, piracy and online fraud. We have an episode with CEO Laura Urquizu.

Signaturit

Speeds up signing processes for all kinds of documents. It’s a platform for managing contracts online in a secure and legal way. We explain how digital signing works with Signaturit and how it has evolved on our podcast.

Networking and events for startups in Barcelona

Barcelona hosts globally recognised events with a huge positive impact on the city, since they attract investment, startups and companies from all over the world. They’re also a source of inspiration and give entrepreneurs a broad view of the possibilities around them.

At Itnig we organise events and activities for startups and entrepreneurs where we share thoughts on technology and business. Every week we organise “Pitch to Investors”, an open session where entrepreneurs can present their projects and get feedback from Itnig’s investors.

To find out more, visit our website or our community on meetup.

Pitch to Investors at Itnig

Some of the city’s most active meetup or networking groups:

Programmes for development and talent

Barcelona is also known for being a breeding ground for all kinds of talent. It stands out for the high-level training it offers through all sorts of centres, universities and programmes.

Training centres

IESE BUSINESS SCHOOL

#1 business school in the Financial Times global ranking.

IESE Barcelona

IESE campus

Universidad de Barcelona

The Universidad de Barcelona is a public university located in the city centre, ranked as the best university in Spain and the 45th best university in the world.

UB campus

Universidad de Barcelona, main campus

The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya ranks among the best universities in the world for civil engineering and architecture.

UPC Barcelona campus

The Universitat Pompeu Fabra is a public university recognised as the top Spanish university by the Times.

UPF Barcelona

UPF campus

Hackathons

Angelhack brings together creators through virtual competitions, accelerators, incubators, innovation programmes and more.
Startup Weekend is an intensive programme that gives a taste of startup life, showing its ups and downs and offering the chance to surround yourself with mentors, investors, co-founders and sponsors.
Hackathon Mobility focuses on the mobility sector and how we’ll get around in the future with different technologies.

Coding bootcamps

Ironhack offers programmes in web design, UX-UI design and data analysis.

Ironhack Barcelona

Barcelona Code School offers programmes in UX-UI, JavaScript, coding, web design and WordPress.
Codeworks is a 3-month full-time programme to become a full stack developer, build applications and understand JavaScript.
Le Wagon is a 9-week programme where you learn and develop the skills of a top developer.
Ubiqum Code Academy drives its students to develop skills in Web Design, Data Analytics and Machine Learning.

Ubiqum Barcelona

Coworking spaces in Barcelona

Coworking spaces are also very popular in Barcelona. In recent years, there’s been huge growth in coworking spaces for creatives, tech lovers and entrepreneurs looking for places to work, get inspired and surround themselves with talent and community. The variety of coworking spaces in the city offers all kinds of options for all kinds of professionals and nomads. Each space fits different needs and preferences.

Itnig’s coworking:

Itnig coworking

Itnig coworking

At Itnig we offer great spaces for tech startups, with high-speed internet, an events room, a leisure room, a terrace, open spaces, break areas and free beer and coffee. It’s also one of the most affordable spaces in the whole city.

For more information, email us at coworking@itnig.net

LaVaca Coworking

LaVaca Coworking

Located in the heart of Poblesec, LaVaca Coworking was converted from a former dairy and is now a coworking space.

Cahoot Coworking, San Antoni

Cahoot coworking Barcelona

Cahoot, located about 10 minutes from the city centre, is a great place to work. The Nordic-Scandinavian décor really promotes focus and clarity.

Espai, Born

Espai coworking Barcelona

Espai is one metro stop from the beach and the city centre, in the heart of El Born, Barcelona’s 16th-century “neighbourhood”.

Blitz, Gracia

Blitz, Barcelona

Located in the heart of Gracia, it focuses on building a growing community of professionals from various industries centred on synergy and collaboration.

Betahaus, Gracia

Betahaus, Barcelona

Betahaus, Barcelona offices

A coworking space for entrepreneurs and creative professionals, offering functional infrastructure to develop ideas.

Kubik, Gracia

Kubik, Barcelona

Kubik offices

Kubik was the first coworking space created in Spain, launched 24 years ago and located in the heart of the Gracia neighbourhood.

WeWork

WeWork Barcelona

WeWork offices in Barcelona

A global coworking company, a comfortable place to work. They have different locations around Barcelona.

To wrap up:

What makes Barcelona attractive as a city:

More than 300 sunny days a year.
Food, food and more food.
Architecture, art and creativity.
International communities.
Artistic and multicultural heritage built up from medieval times through to modernism.
Nearby hikes in the mountains of Tibidabo, Collserola, Montserrat, Montseny.
In under 2 hours you can reach stunning mountains and winter sports resorts like Andorra, Nuria or La Masella.
Close to the Costa Brava, known for its idyllic beaches.
For sailing lovers, there are many clubs in the city: Base Náutica, Club Municipal de Vela and Reial Club de Vela.
You’ll probably find a ping pong table in every startup!

We hope this pocket guide to Barcelona’s startup ecosystem has made you want to be part of it and join all the talent and potential the city has to offer. Beyond tapas, beach and parties, Barcelona is an entrepreneurial ecosystem growing with tremendous strength.

Startup ecosystem in Barcelona 2020