Barcelona is one of the most dynamic start-up ecosystems in Europe. Its pool of talent, innovative environment, entrepreneurial mindset and quality of life are rapidly positioning Barcelona as one of the best cities in Europe in the start-up scene.
Its strong and mature tech ecosystem keeps on attracting the attention of foreign venture capital firms, making it more and more dynamic and global, competing directly with other tier 1 cities.
The attractiveness of Barcelona-based start-ups has become more evident throughout 2021, with a record number of operations and investment that broke records.
A total of 207 closed investment operations ranks Barcelona as the 4th European city with more investment rounds carried out in 2021, ahead of tech hubs such as Amsterdam or Munich and only behind Paris, Berlin and Stockholm (according to Acció and Dealroom).
In terms of the volume of investment, Barcelona raised 1,479 million Euros, the highest ever recorded which positions the Catalan city as the 6th capital in the European ranking. This amount triples the 427 million euros of 2020 and doubling the 784 million euros raised in 2019.
It should be noted that 51% of this amount comes from rounds over 88 million euros (100 million dollars), among which stand out those made by Glovo 450 million euros), Wallapop (157 million euros) or Travelperk (132 million euros). We should also highlight the operations of Userzoom (85 million euros), Factorial (67 million euros), Colvin (45 million euros) and Wallbox (NASDAQ) (33 million euros).
Likewise, the volume of the remaining amounts (between 0 and 100 million dollars or 88 million euros) have reached 724 million euros, which is also the highest figure in the historical series.
Scale-ups and unicorns
According to Dealroom, in 2021, Barcelona has been the 4th EU ecosystem with the highest number of scale-ups (start-ups that have raised more than one million dollars of funding), with a total of 310 companies.
Looking ahead, the facts position Barcelona as the 7th EU start-up hub in number of unicorns (tech company valued in more than 250 million dollars but less than 1,000 million dollars), with a total of 15 companies.
Q-commerce and deeptech
In 2021, the sector stood out the most has been Quick Commerce with operations such Glovo, which closed its largest funding round with 450 million euros. We also have to highlight other sectors such as fintech, proptech and insurtech, among which we find promising start-ups like Ukio or Housfy (proptech) and Vitaance or Weecover (fintech).
However, other sectors such as deeptech, foodtech or healtech, are also attracting interest from local and foreign investors. Some examples are Amenitiz (all-in-one solutions for the hotel industry), Holded (software), Heura (plant-based meat manufacturer), Top Doctors (digital medical appointment and e-Consultation), Abzu (pioneering artificial intelligence for the pharmaceutical industry) and Volava, just to mention a few.