The investor fabric as fuel for entrepreneurial Barcelona

Access to funding can represent for a startup both a brake and a propeller that accelerates its development. For entrepreneurs, having the capacity to attract investment is key, although it is not easy to navigate an investment framework unknown to many, even ethereal, in which multiple actors interact. And it is that, in the startup world, it is not enough to have a good idea, a good team or to target the right market: resources are required to materialize it, and this is where investors come in.

Business angels, venture capital, family offices, micro-investors and also public funding lines; all of them and many more make up this investment fabric, from which in 2024 more than 1,150 million euros flowed in Catalonia, distributed in more than 200 funding rounds. With 5.3 million euros per round on average, the investment raised by Catalan startups last year exceeded that of the previous year by 65%, partly due to large investment rounds, such as those of Sequra, of 410 million, and Travelperk, with 93 million. The Barcelona investment ecosystem is also on this path this year: just at the beginning of 2025, Travelperk announced another round of 190 million euros, and in March it was the turn of Factorial, with 110 million, and Sateliot, with another 70. To these is added what has been the largest investment round in biotechnology at the state level: SpliceBio has recently raised 118 million euros.

From these macro-rounds to less striking but equally relevant operations for the ecosystem, the investment field stands as essential for founders. "Without their presence, without their resources and also without their contacts, their knowledge and their know-how, the ecosystem would not function," defends Acció's Senior Startup Manager, Oriol Sans.

This investment fabric has been gaining weight and structure in Barcelona in recent years, and "the actors are increasingly sophisticated." And, perhaps more importantly, they are diverse and encompass a varied range of options, which allows "to broaden the possibility of supporting companies from different areas."

In this way, startups that need funding can seek out various actors. At the beginning of a startup, founders can choose to self-finance —what is known as the bootstrapping stage—, which can be complemented by resorting to FFF: family, fools and friends, family and people from the entrepreneur's circle who decide to bet on their project. But often the growth of a startup requires resorting to external financing, and investors come into play. Their diversity allows startups to address actors who focus on their development phase, or on the sector they are targeting, or on the collective they represent.

And it is that, in addition to actors who generally address the entrepreneurial landscape, there are multiple options that focus on a specific area. Business angels focused on projects led by women, such as WA4Steam; funds that bet on impact startups; venture capital firms that focus on specific areas and a long etcetera; there are many actors that bring diversity to this investment network. Business angels do so as private investors who contribute their own capital, usually in early stages; venture capital funds intervene as investment vehicles that manage third-party money —which can include everything from other funds to banks and family offices—, and even companies launch into investing in startups that can add value in their sector, as Mango does, for example, with its Mango Startup Studio ---which has just bet on the Mataró-based The Post Fiber to launch a collection of post-consumer recycled fibers---, or the unicorn Factorial, whose founders have opened an investment fund, Itnig Capital, which will invest 15 million in early-stage SaaS startups.

The fact that Barcelona has a diverse ecosystem allows it to redouble its commitment to strategic sectors, such as that of life sciences. In this area, for example, there are several actors who focus their investment activity on emerging companies called to impact science and health. “The investment system in Catalonia in the scientific world is very powerful, especially in early stages,” highlights Maite Malet from Asabys Partners. Despite targeting similar sectors and being established in Barcelona, venture capital managers focused on the field of life sciences coexist in the ecosystem and even collaborate with each other: “We work a lot with investors here, in Spain we are not in a competitive situation among ourselves; there is so much science and so good that, on the contrary, perhaps there are not enough funds for the level of science so good that we have,” adds Malet from the firm, founded in 2018 and which currently has 13 people on the team and 17 participating startups, nine of them located in Barcelona.

One of the firms with which Asabys most often crosses paths is Ysios Capital, which also focuses on startups in the world of life sciences, in its case in preclinical development phases: “What we do is finance the entire clinical development phase up to phase 2, when the drug is tested in reduced patient populations,” explains Guillem Laporta from Ysios. If the results are positive, another screen opens: that of trying to sell the startup to a large company to face phase 3, in which a drug is tested in larger populations, the costs of which usually exceed what venture capital funds can afford: “At least, depending on the disease, between 100 or 200 million euros are needed for this phase 3, and large pharmaceutical companies have the financial muscle to do it within their organization.”

Ysios plans to raise a new fund next year focused on the Spanish and, above all, Barcelona ecosystem, and in the earliest phases, with “the vocation of being able to accelerate all the science of the country, which is a lot.” In fact, according to Laporta, “Barcelona is at the best moment in its history in the biotech sector; we have managed to close the circle, with large companies like AstraZeneca and Sanofi and with startups and investment rounds.”

The diversity of the investment ecosystem also leads to private capital options that go beyond funds, such as crowdfunding platforms, like Capital Cell, and actors like Seedrocket, which has a network of investors that, since 2008, has channeled more than 140 million euros through the non-profit association, as explained by Seedrocket's manager, Kasia Adamowicz.

This investment ecosystem, moreover, continues to grow and add new actors, such as the platform Sheblooms, created a few months ago with the aim of bringing more investment to startups led by women, to try to reverse the fact that only 2% of private capital goes to female entrepreneurs. With this objective, the community connects startups with investors, as Gerard Oller highlights from the platform. In turn, investment platforms often also require investors to strengthen their structure; in the case of Sheblooms, they have about ten investors behind the project. In fact, Sheblooms Ventures raised 200,000 euros in April, to continue propelling its growth and connect more female-led startups with its network of investors, which totals more than 800.

To this diversity of the private capital investment fabric, other options are added, such as participating loans and public aid and subsidies. Here, the state-owned Enisa and the Generalitat's programs stand out, especially through Acció. For some years now, another administration has begun to consolidate itself among those that bet on entrepreneurship through investment: since 2020, the Barcelona City Council has promoted three investment funds, with the aim of boosting investment in strategic sectors for the city and attracting foreign actors. "It acts as a catalyst for venture capital investments," defends the executive director of Business and Entrepreneurship at Barcelona Activa, Itziar Blasco. The first two funds —a first one endowed with 10 million in 2020 and another focused on deep tech in 2023, also with ten million— have invested in more than a hundred startups, which generate about 4,000 jobs. As Deputy Mayor Raquel Gil details, the third venture capital fund has just been launched, through Barcelona Activa and with 30 million euros of municipal contribution —to which that of other investors will be added—, with the aim of diversifying the investment portfolio in sectors that are strategic for the Catalan capital.

But how does a startup manage to secure funding from an investor? To capture their attention, the emerging company must have differentiating elements that make it stand out within the broad ecosystem, and the ways to reach investors are multiple: from the cold call of an email or LinkedIn to presenting at one of the many events organized in the city, as well as through advisors and actors such as hubs, incubators, and accelerators. Investment firms also do scouting and actively seek promising startups at events such as fairs and congresses, as Laporta explains from Ysios.

“They arrive in many ways, but you don't look at everything,” highlights investor and independent director Helena Torras. There must be a differentiating element that leads to responding to the entrepreneur's proposal. If this happens, a process is triggered that can last months until an investment agreement is closed, in the event that the various levels are overcome: it begins with initial contacts in which the investor assesses whether it is worth delving into the startup's project, based on criteria ranging from the sector to the value proposition, but among which a primary one stands out: the team. If everything fits, a due diligence process opens that analyzes all aspects of the company, which may —or may not— culminate in an investment agreement, for which the clauses are negotiated in each case.

Local and international investment

This process can be arduous for the entrepreneur, especially in a context where investment capacity is more limited in Spain than in other European countries or in the United States. To compensate for this, foreign investors are also looked at. From Acció, the Generalitat works to connect local investors with international ones, as Sans highlights: “We make investment opportunities known to them, organize missions at international events, and detect investors in certain markets from the 40 offices that Acció has worldwide.”

Through them, they hold sessions in which Catalan startups virtually present their proposals to investors from specific markets —the International Pitch Sessions—, ranging from health to deep tech. Whether with local or international investors, “the priority is for founders to have the maximum number of options; investors invest in a very small percentage of the startups they see, so we must precisely maximize those they see”. Thus, after a phase in which financing rounds have been reduced internationally —with fewer, smaller, and longer processes— the investment landscape is approaching previous levels, also from the Barcelona ecosystem, which aims to continue developing to generate employment and wealth and to continue scaling its international positioning.