Barcelona has become in recent years one of the most dynamic poles of innovation and entrepreneurship in Southern Europe. This leadership position is not the result of chance, but of the city's determined commitment to creating a solid, diverse, and inclusive ecosystem capable of transforming ideas into projects, projects into companies, and companies into engines of social and economic transformation.
From the Barcelona City Council and, in particular, from the Fifth Deputy Mayor's Office ---which encompasses the competencies of Social Rights, Economic Promotion, Labor, Feminisms, and Democratic Memory--- we work with a strategic vision to consolidate this environment, using tools that go beyond classic support for entrepreneurship. One of these tools is, undoubtedly, the direct promotion of venture capital, as a lever to grow startups in strategic sectors for the city.
Traditionally, the role of public administrations in entrepreneurship has focused on providing support services, such as advice, training, or the provision of physical spaces. In Barcelona, we wanted to go further. We want to be not only facilitators, but dynamizers. This means acting as an active agent within the ecosystem, connecting talent, resources, and opportunities. This approach is materialized in multiple initiatives and projects, such as the consolidation of 22@ and its expansion with key projects such as the innovation hub in care, XRLAB, the Food Lab innovation laboratory, Urban Tech or the positioning of the Besòs area as a pole of activity in industry 4.0 and circular economy.
But one of the most significant leaps in this line is the commitment to diversify the economy and invest through venture capital funds in startups in the sectors we consider strategic for the city's economy: science and innovation, health, technology and digital, the care economy, the visitor economy, commerce and restoration, creative industries, agri-food, the social and solidarity economy, and the blue economy.
Venture capital with a public vocation: the promotion of venture capital as an engine of innovation and quality employment
The City Council's participation in venture capital responds to a clear vision: the need to mobilize private investment towards high value-added sectors, with the capacity to generate quality jobs, that are committed to equal opportunities and contribute to the city's competitiveness. For this reason, the City Council has launched a new venture capital fund called Barcelona Investment Fund, which will be endowed with 30 million euros of municipal contribution and will focus on further diversifying the investment portfolio in these sectors considered strategic and on attracting foreign investment.
This will be the third fund of its kind promoted by the City Council, which already has in operation, since 2020, the Accelera Fund, endowed with 10 million euros and created to reactivate private investment in the city after the paralysis of Covid-19; and, since 2023, the Deep Tech Fund, also endowed with 10 million and, in this case, focused on the Deep Tech field. Between the two, they already have a portfolio of 107 invested startups, which contribute nearly 4,000 jobs to the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This is a highly innovative public policy, which no other City Council in Spain has implemented, following a new logic of sharing risk with private initiative.
An impact that multiplies
This formula generates a multiplier effect of public investment, as the City Council invests a sum of money under the condition that the private fund contributes this sum applying a determined multiplier, different in each fund. The investment strategy is also based on diversification, contributing capital to different funds for a value lower than 10% of the fund's value, usually below 5%. Investments also consider other criteria such as geographical (they must be made in Barcelona companies), sectoral (investing in companies that are part of the strategic sectors for the city), or gender criteria, which prioritizes investment in companies led by women.
Furthermore, the fact that Barcelona is one of the few European cities that acts as an institutional investor in venture capital reinforces its attractiveness as a place to undertake. The city sends a clear message: here, talent finds support, innovation is welcome, and public administration acts as an active ally.
Support beyond investment
The commitment to venture capital is not an isolated event, but rather part of an integral strategy to promote entrepreneurship, with various initiatives aimed at facilitating the creation of new companies and accompanying them in their growth, with support programs such as the Impulsem el que fas grants, blue innovation and entrepreneurship programs, incentives for innovative and highly qualified companies, and entrepreneurship programs for new economic sectors: Creamedia (creative and cultural industries), B-Step (sport), ProgramESS (social and solidarity economy), B-Blue (blue economy), Barcelona Activa Socioeconomic Innovation Support Services (social economy, cooperativism, and socioeconomic innovation), and programs for the revitalization and strengthening of commercial associations (commerce).
We also work to ensure that new companies can grow in an appropriate physical and regulatory environment. This includes everything from the urban transformation of 22@ to house knowledge-intensive companies, to administrative simplification and collaboration with universities, business schools, and technology centers.
Entrepreneurship is also a path to inclusion and opportunity generation, especially for young people and those most affected by the transformation of the labor market
And when we talk about the need to diversify our economy, to make it more resilient, what we pursue is to boost productive sectors that offer higher salaries and more dignified working conditions for everyone, as Mayor Jaume Collboni highlighted last April, with the presentation of the Barcelona Impulsa 2025-2035 Plan, an ambitious economic agenda with investments, new spaces for economic activity and job creation. it is a transformation tool whose objectives are economic diversification and the generation of quality jobs, supporting strategic sectors with a metropolitan outlook and an international vocation.
Entrepreneurship as a city project
Promoting entrepreneurship is not just an economic policy. It is a city's commitment. It is believing that the Barcelona of the future is built on the capacity to innovate, to create, to take risks and to think big. It is understanding that entrepreneurship is also a path to inclusion and to generating opportunities, especially for young people and those most affected by the transformation of the labor market. Digitalization, ecological transition, demographic changes, and the emergence of artificial intelligence are redefining the labor market, the productive model, and economic relations.
Barcelona is a city of entrepreneurs, merchants, artisans, professionals who, for decades, have made possible a productive economy, rooted in the territory and committed to cohesion.
The real challenge is to make this transition fair, balanced, and shared, that leaves no one behind. And we can only do this by working together: institutions, companies, professional associations, universities, trade unions and civil society, to build a more resilient, innovative, efficient and inclusive economic model. For this reason, we are also working to make entrepreneurship an accessible and diverse project, so that young people, women, senior professionals or migrants find spaces and resources to develop their initiatives.
We are fully aware that the city, as the economic and social engine of the country, has a very clear responsibility: to lead transformation processes towards a more digital, more sustainable, more equitable, and more inclusive economy. Barcelona is a city of entrepreneurs, merchants, artisans, professionals who, for decades (and also in the most difficult moments) have made possible a productive economy, rooted in the territory and committed to social cohesion. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which constitute the true backbone of Barcelona's economy, are companies that innovate, create jobs, constantly reinvent themselves, and build the city. It is in this business fabric that much of Barcelona's economic strength and vitality lies.
Looking to the future
The coming years will be decisive. The digital transition, the climate emergency, and demographic changes pose unprecedented challenges, but also immense opportunities. Barcelona wants to be at the forefront of this new economy, not only as a setting, but as a protagonist. And this means continuing to bet on a public-private collaboration model, where the City Council leads but also listens, connects, and facilitates. In short, the Barcelona City Council is determined to continue being a driving force for entrepreneurship.
One of the main problems for entrepreneurs is access to credit to start their business and to make it grow. Venture capital is just one of the tools (powerful, brave, and innovative) for impulse, but behind it there is a deep conviction: that a city with talent, with vision, and with commitment can build a better future for everyone and leave no one behind. We know that much work remains to be done, we must redouble our efforts. We must expand alliances, rethink strategies, and make the economy truly an instrument of social justice. For this reason, we will continue working on an economic model that puts people at the center. An economy at the service of people, which bets on equal opportunities and quality employment.