2021 was a good year for the Catalan entrepreneurial ecosystem, positioning Barcelona as the fourth European city that closed the most financing rounds, capturing a record figure of 1,479 million euros, and the third preferred destination to create a startup.
It was also the year in which a new Barcelona unicorn emerged ---a company valued at more than 1,000 million euros---, Wallbox, followed this 2022 by Travelperk and with an eye on other local companies such as Paack, Factorial, Wallapop, Impress, Colvin or Red Points.
All this was achieved thanks to a fabric made up of 1,900 startups, 11% more than in 2020 and 26.4% more than there were in 2019, before the pandemic. The Government aspires to reach 4,000 emerging companies by 2030, a year in which it also hopes to have consolidated a total of 15 unicorns. The workforce of this type of companies, mostly located in Barcelona and its metropolitan area, stands at 19,300 workers, 10% more than in 2019. They are mainly dedicated to health, a sector that also experienced a record year in 2021.
This is confirmed by the Barcelona & Catalonia Startup Hub platform in its annual report. Created in 2016 by Acció, the studies it has been carrying out have registered constant growth in recent years, also overcoming covid, going from 1,086 startups in 2016 to almost 2,000 last year, a 75.1% increase.
As the number of emerging companies in Catalonia grows, so does their size. Firstly, if in 2018 85% of startups had fewer than ten employees, in 2020 this percentage decreased to 76%. On the other hand, 77% of startups invoiced less than 500,000 euros in 2018, a proportion that has been reduced to 67% in 2020, making those with higher incomes gain more weight.
The maturity of the sector is also reflected in the experience accumulated by its members. Thus, 52% of companies in 2021 have a founding member who has previously created another company, above the 45% in 2020.
International presence
The Catalan entrepreneurial ecosystem is also characterized by a strong international component. Some data that demonstrate this are that 26% of startup workers are foreigners, as are 17% of the founders. Another factor that also detects this trend, collected for the first time in the report, is that 73% of companies have international clients, which represent almost half of their turnover.