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Barcelona: the European startup hub

Barcelona Skyline That Hosts One Of Europe's Best Startup Hub

Barcelona is a no-brainer for the dynamic pool of talent that are choosing it as a base for their startup dreams. The city has ranked 3rd most attractive hub for European startups, for the fourth year in a row (Startup Heatmap 2021) – unsurprising due to a growing and maturing startup ecosystem. 

An enjoyable quality of life, with pleasant weather year round and a whole host of supportive and driving infrastructure positions Barcelona as the innovative, startup and tech hub of Europe.

The global influence of a European hub

The city of Barcelona has provided an ecosystem ripe for both international and Spanish founded unicorns such as N26, Glovo, Letgo and eDreams. Big household names such as Ocado have also made Barcelona their home for technological innovation. Ocado moved their e-commerce development center to the European hub in 2016, with specialists in software engineering, product and UX transforming global food e-commerce.

Startup culture

Barcelona’s weather isn’t the only attraction for founders! The city alone has nearly 200 startup accelerators and incubators and offers over a third (56!) of all Spanish coworking spaces within its boundaries (Global Coworking Space). Such infrastructure is the foundation of a startup culture; building a digital and collaborative nomad space and offering advice and guidance to budding entrepreneurs on their first steps. These initiatives boost the spirit, give training and connect stakeholders with startups throughout the country. 

Both the private and public sectors stand behind Spanish startups and their growth has resulted in, so far, an impressive YTD €1.8bn from VC investment, and over 11,000 verified startups in the country (Dealroom). The unique technological community of the Spanish city receives over €500mn in investment each year, and boasts advanced technological skills such as programming and coding (Government of Catalonia).

International community 

The Spanish startup ecosystem also offers an incredibly large selection of workers for startup success, with a domestic market of 46 million citizens, as well as the European market of nearly 450 million. In 2020 alone, over 65% of startup founders were foreign born, which ranks Barcelona as the 4th most international European startup hub (Startup Heatmap 2021).

With renowned universities, business schools and international events hosted, talent is specialised, creative and highly trained. Internationally anticipated events hosted in Barcelona, such as the Mobile World Congress and the Smart City Expo World Congress, draws the attention of thousands to the city. 

Why Barcelona?

If avoiding the rain and enjoying a pleasant climate year round isn’t enough to sway talent from other tech hubs to the Spanish startup capital, then all its other perks are sure to do the job. At Touchpoint, we have a large network of Spanish and European talent to choose from. 

Barcelona’s competitive gross salary for digital workers, and its creative and skilled entrepreneurial minds means Barcelona’s talent pool is more in demand than ever before for industries such as AI, Data and Fintech. The Barcelona initiatives are driving and building a European ecosystem of successful startups. 

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