Valencia. The value of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Spain is estimated to have risen to 100 billion euros last year. The figure is taken from the ‘Spain Environment Report’ study carried out by Dealroom.co, which examines the technology-based companies industry in Spain, in collaboration with Kfund, BBVA Spark, Endeavor Spain, GoHub Ventures, Wayra, SpainCap and Enisa. The growth recorded in 2023 will be 14% higher than the previous year.
The ecosystem’s rating is calculated by taking into account factors such as the investment received by startups, which last year raised 2.2 billion euros through more than 850 funding rounds. According to the study, 46 of these millions went to Valencia, the fourth most preferred national territory by investment after Madrid (605 million), Barcelona (457 million) and Seville (70 million). Fifth in the national top5 is San Sebastian.
The dealroom.co report coincides with another public event on ‘Tech and Innovative Companies’ in Spain last week, with the publication of El Referente analyzing the national entrepreneurial ecosystem. The main data of this analysis includes the almost 100,000 jobs per year created by existing startups in our country and the approximate wealth of 11,541 million euros per year. According to him, there will be more than 7,000 active technology companies in Spain 3,640 are startups and 1,185 are in scale-up or growth phase.
Depending on what the report of the referent varies dealroom.co The array of autonomous communities that attract the most investment is the first resource for its list of investments raised by the communities. Accordingly, Valencia will take third place behind Catalonia, which will take first place behind Madrid.
Regarding the impact of entrepreneurs on job creation within the community, a study by the Startup Observatory of the Valencian Community, although it does not provide exact numbers, says that 30% of the total of 1,314 registered startups, according to this source, are there. Located in the community, they have over 11 employees and have increased their workforce by 67% compared to the previous year.
multiplier effect
The statement dealroom.co It also cites a series of companies that served as quarries for the birth of other entrepreneurs, who left them to pursue their own projects. Among the most notable in this sense he cites Clovo, Jopantalant, or Gabify. According to the Endeavor Organization, more than 90 companies founded by former employees have already emerged solely from the latter. Glovo has also started its own manufacturing plant. Beginnings Through the Glovo House project. Other pollinators can be wallpox, feverfew or factor.
In any of the mentioned cases we cannot talk about startups, at least we must refer to them as scaleups, that is, companies that have been growing in the number of employees or turnover at an annual rate of more than 20% for three consecutive years and, according to the definition of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), is already one million euros. .
Another ranking, named ‘The Next 35’ and promoted by the PATIO Innovation & Startup Campus, includes 35 nationwide scaleups that could transform existing member companies of the Ibex 35 in the future. Wallbox, JobandTalent, Cabify, Heüra and Mundimoto top the list.
weak point
It is under development Beginnings Once they implement their product or service in the market and integrate a working team, they start increasing their income level and building wealth. To accelerate growth, the usual thing in these stages is to seek larger investment rounds, which are called Series A or Series B, which are much higher than the initial one. However, it is at this point that the national ecosystem appears weak, with investment funds betting more on projects in the pre-seed or seed stages than continuing what is already underway.
A dealroom.co study says that 2.2 billion euros were invested in Spain last year, with 1,000 going to funding rounds of less than 15 million euros. The result of this lack of support for scaling is, in many cases, the early sale of the company or the search for foreign funds, some of which, like the United States, require moving the original headquarters to the investing country.
Spanish investors, etc Jose del BarrioSamaipata’s founding partner lamented the lack of “a favorable legal and financial framework internationally” for equity-based remuneration.
However, organizations such as Endeavor emphasize the need for investment to mature at the same pace as entrepreneurs, and the participation of other public and private institutions. Bank, by Venture loan, seems to have found a niche to align his interests with the entrepreneurial world. Likewise, administrations have already taken a step forward with initiatives such as the recently approved ICO co-investment fund with 2,000 million euros until 2026 from the ‘Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan’ to attract foreign investment to Spanish companies.
