BCN

#STARTUPSPAIN
KIRSTY STYLES UNCOVERS EUROPES BEST KEPT SECRETS

REPORT
barcelona

Kirsty Styles
@kirstystyles1

any in tech will only

briey touchdown in
Barcelona if theyre
heading to quickly dash
around the now-throbbing halls of
Mobile World Congress trying to spot
the next big thing.
As the ofcial Mobile World Capital,
Barcelona opens its doors to some
80,000 mobile professionals from
more than 200 countries each year,
as well as hosting so many more
additional conferences that it can lay
claim to being a top ve global events
host.
Spain has been hit hard by
the nancial crisis and youth
unemployment across the country has
hovered around 50% for the past few
years. But Barcelona, the capital of
the Catalonia region, has consistently
outperformed other areas of the
country.
Of course, the city doesnt disappear
as soon as we all jump on our budget
ights back to Blighty. Barcelona is
not only a thriving tourist hotspot,
welcoming tens of millions every year
to explore its 4km of beaches, 46
theatres and 78 museums; its also
a pretty smart city. It boasts some
175,000 companies, including multimillion euro tech success stories such
as Softonic and eDreams, plus more
than 5,500 foreign businesses.
Barcelona is going to be one of the
most vibrant startup ecosystems in
the future, says Daniela Arens, cofounder and CEO of local networking
platform Foundum. It ticks all the
boxes for entrepreneurs who want
to build up companies with capital

efciency and enjoy quality of life at

the same time. And if you are focused
on mobile, the world will come to you
at least once a year.
SMART GOVERNMENT
The city is home to eight universities
and has the largest number of top
ranked business schools in the
world, according to the Wall Street
Journal. Polytechnic University of
Catalonia students can take advantage
of a specially-designed tech startup
course, which includes free space for a
year to incubate their idea. The EADA
business school, meanwhile, has been
providing seed capital loans since
2013 and offers its alumni ofce space
in the city council-sponsored Business
Factory of Barcelona.
While some local councils could be
accused of dragging their feet around
tech, Barcelona set up its Activa local
development agency way back in
1986 and founded its rst business
incubator two years later. In 2013
alone, 1,800 companies were created
through the Activa programmes, with
the Glries Business Incubator touting
a business survival rate of 80% and an
average turnover of 600,000 in the
fourth year of operation.
Barcelona Activa is making good
efforts in supporting entrepreneurs,
Arens says. Theres also access
to entrepreneurial loans from the
Spanish State, such as the ENISA,
and the public investment agency ICO
has launched an innovation nance
programme with 1.2bn to invest
in startups and growth companies.
Some startups are offered a reduction

in corporation tax during the rst two

years theyre active, she adds.
The designated innovation
district 22@, known to old-timers
as Poblenou, has been transformed
over the past 15 years, including
adding high-speed bre optic
internet and 4G, to attract both local
and international tech companies.
The Barcelona Growth initiative,
situated here, is another city council
programme and seeking to build
public and private partnerships to
help boost growth. It houses all of
the local governments business
accelerators, along with branding and
business services, a tech skills scheme
and a post-MWC legacy project.
The city is acutely aware that MWC
will not last forever and as Barcelonas
contract with the GSMA expires in
2018, efforts are being made to create
a long-standing benet to residents.
mStartup Barcelona was launched last
year and is entirely geared towards
mobile tech development. Activa is
also ensuring its entrepreneurs are
cushioned from the bureaucracy
that dogs some areas of the Spanish
economy, like the property market.
Activa promises online business
incorporation for limited liability
companies in just 48 hours, for
example.
SMART ENTERPRISE
Barcelonas startup ecosystem is
growing all the time, with Impact Hub
and Tag Garden just two new names
moving into the co-working space,
and there are numerous global brands
and local initiatives trying to make

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35

The city is clearly aiming

to carve a niche in the
smart cities and big data
space, and its doing a
pretty good job

REPORT
barcelona

their mark.
In terms of global accelerator
brands, Spains Wayra, created by
the telco Telefnica, is now joined by
Startupbootcamp, which launched
its rst Internet of Things & Data
programme in Barcelona just this
year. Startupbootcamp offers up to
15,000 per startup, up to 6 months
of free ofce space and more than
450,000 worth of partner services.
Not to be outdone, local accelerators
include Seed Rocket and Conector,
with the latter about to welcome 11
new startups through its doors, its
third cohort since launch. While some
sound a little me too, the ideas span
areas as diverse as logistics, marketing
and ecommerce. Perhaps the most
interesting, Joyners, focuses on the
creation of shared homes for senior
citizens, with a tech twist. One of
Conectors 2014 alumnus, Viuing, has
just received a 700,000 investment
to grow its disposable entertainment
screen business.
Lifestyle, tourism and bioscience
startups will undoubtedly continue
to emerge from Catalunya, however
were seeing some great new startups
in the ntech, IoT and big data arenas
as well, says Scott Mackin, founder
of English-language startup mag
Barcinno. If I had to put a number
on it, I would say there are about 400
high-growth startups in Barcelona and
a nascent, but emerging investment
scene to fuel its growth.
Given Spains weak economy
and global perceptions around
local bureaucracy, many believe its
tough to get investment in BCN.
But Catalonia is actually one of the
top European foreign investment
destinations, with rms based
here looking for their next startup
including Nauta Capital, Active VP,
Highgrowth, Caixa Capital Risc and
Inveready.
Its not difcult to drum up
50,000 to 200,000 seed funding
with a good pitch and some
networking, however we still have
a crunch in the 500,000 to 5m

range, so a lot of companies opt for

follow-on bridge rounds to keep
going, Mackin says. Unfortunately,
at that stage were seeing some very
promising ventures leave the country,
opting for US or UK headquarters
while keeping their dev team and
majority of operations in Spain where
your money stretches further.
SMART CITIES
The city is clearly aiming to carve a
niche in the smart cities and big data
space, and its doing a pretty good job.
Last year, Barcelona hosted the Smart
City Expo World Congress, which
welcomed 50 mayors, 41 international
delegations and 400 speakers to
address the major challenges of our
future smart cities. The citys Centre of
Contemporary Culture, which is lead
sponsored by Telefnica, also hosted
the Big Bang Data Exposition, which
saw some 65,000 people head through
its doors.
Barcelona has now launched The
Big Data Centre of Excellence to focus
this effort and is already attracting the
big guys in big data to its shores, with
STRATA+HADOOP hosting its rst
Big Data Conference outside of the US
in BCN.
It is also one of four participant
cities in the EUs iCity open data
project, along with Bologna, Genova
and London, where it is developing
and deploying cost-effective smart city
tech.
The city is pouring millions into an
effort to brand itself as an innovation
capital and world-leading smart
city so theres a lot of buzz there,
plus the private sector is joining
in with massive investments from
companies like Cisco and Oracle,
Mackin says. Barcelona was chosen
among 58 applicants to become the
rst European Capital of Innovation
last year and the 500,000 prize is
being used to expand its efforts on
innovation.
Its the Barcelona gherkin, Torre
Agbar, a protrusion on the citys
skyline, thats said to mark the gateway

to the new tech area, but its not quite

Silicon Roundabout. One thing were
denitely missing here is our very
own Shoreditch neighbourhood,
Mackin adds. Our startup ecosystem
is all around the city without any
real hub. Luckily, our city is fairly
easy to manoeuvre so we nd
ourselves meeting up at events like
Fest-UP, Startup Grind, weekly
Meetup groups, or just over pints at a
local pub.
.CAT
The Sacred Heart of Jesus looks out
from the top of Mount Tibidabo over
the city, reminding its residents where
they are and who they are; one only
need look at the success of the .cat
domain name to understand how
proud Barcelona is of its identity.
As if you need reminding, Barcelona
is also home to the worlds second
most valuable sports team, FC
Barcelona, owned by the fans and ms
que un club (more than a club),
which includes its tech efforts. FCB
appointed entrepreneur Didac Lee
as board member responsible for
innovation, aiming to ensure it is a
global leader in new media, social
media and mobile. In 2012, the club
released a whopping eight apps but
its most recent launch is a mobile
ticketing system over at Camp Nou.
Mobile World Congress clearly has a
major impact on Barcelonas economy,
as well as blocking up roads and
spilling executives out on the streets
for one intense week of the year, but
its so much more than that. One only
needs to check out the rad red Bicing
bike scheme, the 100% accessibility
of buses for disabled people or the
2,400 hours of sunshine each year to
see that.
The city may be accused of being
overenthusiastic in using the public
sector, local and EU-level funding,
to build its tech scene, but lets not
forget, thats exactly how the World
Wide Web came into being. And where
would we all be without that? Not
smart at all.
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